


steady as we go

by spaceconspiracy



Category: One Piece
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Romantic Comedy, loads of zoro/sanji nakamaship, zoro's kind of dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 08:19:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 37,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9539483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceconspiracy/pseuds/spaceconspiracy
Summary: “We’re like magnets.”In which Zoro still dreams of his dead high school sweetheart, Sanji thinks he’s the Millionaire Matchmaker, and Zoro keeps meeting Luffy by happenstance. Modern AU.





	

**Author's Note:**

> it all started Feb 2016, when my sweet girlfriend said "au where one piece is a dating website". i haven't been the same since. 
> 
> this is wrought with headcanons and side pairings! it's the very self indulgent cliche rom-com 35k zolu fic i deserved!!!  
> main pairings, besides obvious zolu, are sanji/nami, and law/ace!!
> 
> VARIOUS TRIGGER WARNINGS: alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, marijuana using, sanji last name usage. what a bunch of rebels. 
> 
> this is barely proof-read so if you find any errors let me know! enjoy!!!

Zoro’s already figured that, since the first two “dates” were disasters, he should give up on this whole dating website thing entirely.

 

It wasn’t even _his_ idea, Sanji’s the one who ripped his laptop from his hands, one night when Zoro had one beer too many and started complaining about how tired he is of seeing Sanji flaunt his newfound relationship. He’s one of _those_ people, who’s just sooooo in love with a girl he barely knows and wants “my best friend to experience the joy, the wonder, the dream come true”. Sanji’s full of shit, and if he ever calls Zoro his “best friend” ever again, he’ll disown the curlybrowed fuck.

 

Regardless, he only put up with the dating site thing to get Sanji to shut his damn trap. It felt like things were going too far when he accidently agreed to coffee with a girl who was too vaguely reminiscent of a high school sweetheart gone the worst kind of  sour. She was cute but spilled coffee all down the front of Zoro’s shirt the moment they met (which really wouldn’t have bothered him had she even apologized for it outside of an “Oops!”). Everything was fine until he realized that this was a person who could kick his ass to high heaven. He doesn’t like feeling intimidated on his dates.

 

The second one was even worse. Zoro didn’t even want to go in the first place - he couldn’t get the girl to stop blowing up the messaging system and every ten seconds his phone was going off from that stupid app he should’ve never downloaded. The website in general was a mistake; why do they even _need_ a phone app if they have a full-functioning website anyway? All it’s there for are annoying ass notifications.

  
Really, in hindsight, he could have easily reported her to the actual police for harassment but Zoro’s a man who handles everything on his own. He agreed to some obscure concert for a band he’d never dream of hearing of (and didn’t bother to look up prior to, as he assumed just from who invited him that it wouldn't be something he’d like) because _surely_ if this girl saw him in person she’d realize how awfully boring he is and leave him alone, right? At least, that was Sanji’s theory.

 

Sanji was very, very wrong, because here he is a week later with that same - fucking - _lunatic_ \- _still_ blowing up his notifications. “When will we go out again!!” “I miss you!!!!!” “We had such a good time!!!!” “I was so nice to you why are you ignoring me  >:(“. Really, the website should have a block feature right?

 

Zoro’s trying to navigate said site via the phone app he’s deleting as soon as he figures this shit out when the Devil himself comes tearing into their local meet-up Starbucks with hearts in his eyes. Wow, did he finally get laid?

 

Without introduction, Sanji half throws himself into the chair across from Zoro’s. Zoro was kind of hoping he’d fall right off the other side, but Sanji manages to keep himself upright. Damn.

  
Sanji puts both elbows on the table and holds his chin in the palms of his hands. “I think I’m in love~.”

“You’ve known this girl for two weeks,” Zoro dismisses, admitting defeat in his phone app adventure and locking the screen. It buzzes again in what could _only_ fucking be another message from local Crazy Pastel Goth. He only uses the descriptor because it’s her screenname.

 

Sanji doesn’t even notice. “It was love at first sight, but now it’s _in love_ at first kiss.” He’s doing that thing again where he tries to sound like a Shakespeare play but falls incredibly short.

 

“No such thing,” Zoro comments.

 

“You just haven’t felt the _joy,_  the _wonder_ , the _dream come true -_ ”

 

“Alright enough, I’m gonna vomit.” Zoro gets the chills, which is either a sign that he’s going to hold to that promise to hurl, or somebody just walked across his grave. It was probably PastelGoth48.

 

“How’s the online dating thing going?” Sanji asks, switching from Mr. Prince to his usual annoying self. He raises one of those weird eyebrows at Zoro, expectant, and as obnoxious as it is, Zoro finds he prefers this over (supposedly) in-love Sanji. He hasn’t figured out how to handle the latter yet and it seems too tiring to even try to.

 

“Fuck it,” Zoro scoffs. “I’m deleting the app right now.” He even goes to pick up his phone but Sanji gets to it before he can.

 

“Oh, _please_ ,” Sanji punctuates the word by waving Zoro’s phone in the air, who makes an attempt to grab it and could have easily ripped it from Sanji’s slimy palm if his limbs weren’t as long as the distance between the Earth and the moon. “That one pink goth girl was _gorgeous_ , what happened with her?”

 

“Beauty is skin deep,” Zoro mutters, standing up to finally retrieve the phone Sanji’s holding high above his head. Sanji allows it (as much as he can, considering Zoro would have found a way no matter what).

 

“You went out _once_ ,” Sanji argues.

 

Zoro can’t believe his ears. “So I can’t decide I don’t like a girl after one date, but you can decide you’re in love with one after two.” He thinks about letting Sanji in on the fact that said goth girl is still fucking crazy but thinks his so-called friend would get too big of a _kick_ out of it to ever live it down. He’ll tell him some other time when he’s not being all - Sanji.

 

“Two, being the operative word,” Sanji points out smartly. “Okay, okay, you know what,” he holds his hands up in mock defeat. “We get it. Your gay is showing. We know. So, gimme that back, I’ll look for men for you -”

 

“No,” Zoro says flatly, immediately. Sanji’s the one who got him into his mess in the first place, and the man’s too _hetero_ to even remotely be capable of playing gay matchmaker. Who does he think they are, Bravo TV network stars?

 

“Why not, I’m great at this!”

 

“Johnny.”

 

“ . . . Okay, touche,” Sanji relents. Sanji’s only good at setting up short flings; he makes a great wingman for one night stands, but he’s the last person Zoro ever wants to go to for any type of _relationship_ advice. Johnny is just one of a few bad examples of Sanji’s attempts at matchmaking Zoro, _especially_ with men.

  
That being said, he’s getting overly tired of Sanji’s insistence at this dating site thing, and is only about two minutes away from shoving his own cell phone down Sanji’s throat to get him to shut the fuck up. He’s already envisioning it when Sanji sighs dramatically. “What am I gonna do with you?”

 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Zoro wrinkles his nose. He hates when Sanji talks to him like they’re _friends_ or something.

“Nobody’s going to want to date such a sour person,” Sanji calls Zoro out on the intimidating glare being sent in his direction. “I’m tired of watching you mope all the damn time, you need a hobby that isn’t getting drunk.”

 

“Drinking isn’t a hobby, it’s a lifestyle,” Zoro says, voice thick with sarcasm.

“Just find something to do. Smile like one time in your entire life, or is that too hard?’

 

Zoro thinks about giving Sanji one just to prove a point, but the muscles in his face ache with disuse just when he attempts to, so he lets go of that notion completely. Sanji uses the silence as an opportunity for belittlement, “Unless you’re just so _heartbroken_ over my being in love with somebody else~”

 

“Oh, get over yourself,” Zoro answers sharply, thoroughly disgusted. As _if_.

 

Sanji snickers at him. “Come on, third time’s the charm. One more date with one more guy and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll stop bugging you and you can be miserably single for the rest of your life.”

 

Zoro really doesn’t want to, but if just one more “date” is enough to get Sanji off his back for infinity then he’s willing to suffer through it. “Okay, fine,” he answers, handing his phone over to Sanji. If he’s going to agree to this, he’s not going to be the one to actively try and talk to _anyone_ long enough to set up any kind of date. Sanji can be the one who puts forth all the energy.

 

“PastelGoth48 sent you 23 messages,” Sanji observes.

 

“Don’t mention it again,” Zoro seethes.

 

“You’ll get this back when I’ve found someone,” Sanji stands up, tucking Zoro’s shitty, outdated Android into the front pocket of his (stupid) suit jacket.

 

“Oi, what the fuck, you can’t just take my phone -” but Sanji’s already striding out the door with his astronomical unit legs and Zoro has to run after him with nothing but an ass-kicking on his mind.

 

~X~

 

“PirateKing sounds worse than PastelGoth48,” Zoro says the minute Sanji tells him the username.

 

“But he’s cute, or at least, I’m assuming so. I don’t like men so I wouldn’t know.”

 

Zoro rolls his eyes and takes his phone back from Sanji to squint intensely at the screen. If Sanji’s going to set him up with someone one last time, he better make it count. If only he could actually fucking read the profile. He makes a mental note to stop leaving his reading glasses at home.

 

“So, like, is the whole liking meat thing a gay euphemism or do you think this kid just really likes steak?” Sanji asks, pointing to the blurry description under the profile picture that is most certainly not whoever PirateKing is’ face. At least, he hopes not, because as cool of a Jolly Roger as that is, it’d be a little awkward trying to have a date with a disembodied skull.

 

“How am I supposed to know,” Zoro replies, and attempts to go through the profile more for his routine screening process. Sanji whips the phone out of his hand before he gets the chance to even glimpse a face.

 

“What is it now?” Zoro snaps.

 

“I change my mind, I don’t want you to see him first,” Sanji says, holding the phone close to his chest to shield it from Zoro’s view. “Blind date’s are more fun. Except for the one that I had with Alvida, but you swore never to mention that.”

 

“I didn’t, you did -”  
  
“Anyways, I’ll finally delete the app now. I already set everything up, just _show up_. Don’t say you’re gonna show up and then not show up -”

 

“I’ll show up, jeez,” Zoro waves off Sanji’s needless insistence; after all the hoops the guy’s jumping through just to get Zoro a _date_ he’s not going to miss out on this being his opportunity to stop Sanji’s carnival acts. “What’d you even do, pretend to be me or something?”

  
“I couldn’t possibly dream of imitating you,” Sanji says dramatically, putting a palm to his chest. “I’m not lame enough.”

  
“You son of a -” Zoro starts, already gearing to lunge across the table and give Sanji a piece of mind in a totally aggressive, not-kinky away. Knowing Sanji he’d take it as the latter anyway. Zoro slumps back down when he realizes this and goes instead for the darkest of scowls.

 

“Such a sub,” Sanji says, because of _course_ he noticed Zoro’s resignation.

 

“Bite me.”

  
“Gladly,” Sanji teases. “I’m sure PirateKing is into that. I could ask him for you -”  
  
“You said you’d delete the app -”  
  
“Alright, alright, stop _whining_ ,,” Sanji makes a show of dragging the on-screen heart-shaped icon to the uninstall button. “Care to do the honors?” he asks when the _Are you sure you want to uninstall?_ prompt comes up.

 

“Gladly,” Zoro concedes and watching the stupid fucking app disappear off his phone (hopefully, forever) is a huge weight lifted off his shoulders.

 

~X~  
  
  
Which comes all back crashing down day off when his phone starts going off with Sanji sending message after message reminding him that he better meet up with PirateKing at the designated time and place “or else”. Zoro’s almost curious as to what or else could possibly mean, considering he could kick Sanji’s ass with one hand, _blindfolded_. He reminds himself that if he just gets through the next few hours alive he’ll be free to live his happy (despite what Sanji says) bachelor life. He much prefers it like this.

 

Zoro isn’t _lonely._ He’s always been fine by himself. He has a tragic backstory for the God damn _ages_ , could easily make a teen girl cry, but he’s immune to the repetitiveness of it by now. As emo as it sounds, he got used to being alone a long time ago. But alone does not mean lonely.

 

Anyways, that’s getting a little too emotional and deep for him, and Zoro’s a man of many talents but this most certainly isn’t one of them, so he casts all that aside. Just one more date and he’ll be free. He wonders if he should wear something besides the holey Rebelution t-shirt he’s worn on every other date thus far. Maybe that’s what’s giving him all this bad luck. . .

 

As if by some psychic magic, or what Sanji would probably just call his Zoro senses, Zoro’s phone shrills at Sanji’s chosen ringtone of the _Hell’s Kitchen_ theme, complete with his contact photo of a rather unflattering picture of Gordon Ramsay.

  
Zoro forgoes greetings when he answers it. “You haven’t told me _where_ you’ve set this up at.”

 

“Are you already lost?” Sanji asks, sounding more offended than teasing, somehow.

 

“Shut up, I haven't even left yet!”

“Wow, you’re already lost, and you haven’t even _left_ your apartment. Typical marimo.”

 

“How would you like it if I put every single one of your kitchen knives in the garbage disposal -”

 

“Then I’d make you pay for the replacements. Your knock-off Android Siri is your best hope at this point, _do not get lost_. I told the kid an hour after what I told you as the time -”

 

“If it takes me an hour to get there, I’m not going,” Zoro interrupts rather indignantly. He doesn’t have that kind of gas money.

 

“Hypothetically, it should only take twenty minutes, tops, but knowing you  . . .” he trails off, giving Zoro’s brain a moment to catch up with the implied insult.

 

“I don’t get lost!” Zoro defends himself adamantly. He doesn’t understand why Sanji is always so insistent that he does, because it’s entirely _untrue_. It’s not his fault the city’s constantly moving shit around. Changing the location of streets and what-not.

 

“Keep telling yourself that. Don’t blow this, it took a lot of convincing to set it up in the first place!”

  
“Why are you so pushy about this person anyway?” Zoro asks for the first time, far too late in hindsight.

 

Sanji goes quiet for a few seconds too long to be anything other than _suspicious_ , then tries to recover himself with an annoying, “I’m just trying to look out for my _best -_ ”

 

“Don’t you dare,” Zoro warns.

 

Sanji laughs the whole exchange off. “Alright, I’ll text you the address. Also, don’t wear the God awful Rebel-whatever shirt. Nobody likes reggae.”

Zoro already has it on. “Whatever you say.”

 

Before Sanji hangs up he says, “By the way, he’ll be the one in the straw hat.”

 

~X~

  
Zoro swore up and down he wouldn’t get lost, and he _didn’t_ get lost, knock-off Siri _got_ him lost. He spends thirty minutes circling a Taco Bell with a gas tank that’s screaming a low fuel warning at him before he finds the main road he’s searching for, but in the end, he gets to his destination in one piece. Fifteen minutes late. That’s fine though, maybe mysterious PirateKing will think of it as _fashionably_ late.

 

Not that he’s particularly keen on wanting the guy to like him or anything. Zoro doesn’t really plan to (although he has yet to meet the guy, or even see what he _looks_ like, but he’s a stubborn man). In all honesty, he just wants to get this whole trip over with.

 

He _was_ certain he had the right address and location and everything until he pulls up into one of the local community centers. It wouldn’t really be that disconcerting if it wasn’t for the fact that the parking lot was _packed_ (Zoro hates crowds). On top of that the sign announcing the far left entrance as AQUARIUM is done in such bright colors, Zoro’s head starts to ache just looking at it. He didn’t deserve this. He’s going to kill Sanji.

 

Zoro’s never been to an aquarium; his only interaction with fish is when he’s eating them. Just because Sanji “I’m a Vegan, Even Though I Eat Fish” Vinsmoke is obsessed with the things to the point that Zoro has seen him cry over _Finding Nemo_ not once, not twice, but three entire times, doesn’t mean that he should be subjected to something like this.

 

On one hand, he knows the whole charade will be so achingly boring - he’d rather have had a _movie_ where he doesn’t have to talk at all, but one can’t go about a date at an aquarium without _saying_ anything. Then things just get overwhelming awkward. On the other though - being boring and awkward is a surefire way to make sure a second date is nowhere near even the realm of possibilities.

 

(Zoro texts Sanji “ _ur dead_ ” before he goes inside anyway).

‘

Zoro’s first impression of the whole place is that they could use some more funding. There’s a box office set in front of the doors that presumable lead into the actual aquarium itself, but the rest of the lobby is bland, save for some sad-looking posters about discounts, and deals, and “We do parties!”. The colors of them are washed out compared to the bright yellows and blues of the sign outside.

 

It occurs to Zoro that all he has to go off of on how to find his blind date is a straw hat. Sanji failed to remember that currently they’re approaching summer at a rapid rate, and floppy straw-looking hats are _in_ right now. There’s at least three different people wearing some variation of them in the ticket line alone. At the very least, they’re all women.

 

And on top of that, where should he _go_? Should he wait in the lobby? Sanji did give mysterious Straw Hat a different time, and Zoro didn’t get lost enough to fill that entire slot, so that’d make sense. Unless his sense of timing is as off as his direction (not that he has a bad sense of direction or anything) and it’s later than he thought. If he goes inside, where should he wait inside? A particular exhibit? The gift shop?

 

“Um, excuse me!” the girl behind the ticket counter calls to him. Zoro hadn’t realized, so caught up in his thoughts, that it was his turn.

“Oh,” is all he says, stepping forward and ignoring the annoyed grumbling of the people behind him. “One, adult, please.”

 

The girl behind the counter is no doubt using the same shade of Splat hair dye as he is; he’d recognize that washed out pastel green anywhere. That reminds him that he’s due for a touch-up. The thought goes out the window quickly when the girls smiles sweetly and says, “That’ll be $32.45!”

“No, no,” Zoro corrects, stopping halfway in pulling his wallet out. “I only wanted one ticket.”

 

The girl nervously adjusts the mermaid shaped name tag pinned to the front of her shirt. It reads _Camie_ with a smiley face at the end of it. “Oh, I’m sorry, sir, that is the amount for one ticket!”

 

A vein throbs in Zoro’s forehead, but as disgusted as he is at that price, he’s not about to take it out on this poor girl. She doesn’t set the prices after all. “Fine,” he concedes, swapping the cash he was about to grab for the credit card he really shouldn’t use.

 

Camie looks relieved but with a vein of annoyance creasing her brow as she finishes the transaction. Still, though, she keeps the customer mask on cleanly when she gives Zoro his wristband and gestures towards the doors that mark the true entrance.

 

He has his head down as he goes through the doors, nudging one open with his shoulder, hands focused on trying to strap the slipper paper wristband around his wrist. He really doesn’t think this is necessary, but there’s a security guard nearby that’s watching him intently. As much as he loves a good fight, an aquarium probably isn’t the best place for it.

 

Zoro caves and is using his teeth to pull the final strap in place, still walking; he bumps into somebody with enough force to nearly send them both to the ground and it takes holding the stranger by their shoulders to keep that from happening. “Watch out,” Zoro says, and in any other situation he’d be pissed the fuck off, but he can admit that this time it was the wristband’s fault.

 

“Whoa, sorry!” the stranger cries in a voice awfully too loud considering how close they’re facing each other. The kid squints at him for a few moments and then recognition Zoro doesn’t understand dawns on his face. “You’re him!”

 

“What -” Zoro begins but then he looks up and sees a straw hat.

  
Oh _no._

 

“Ha, nice to meet you, you look just like Sanji said you would!” The kid sticks out his hand, three wristbands of his own stacked up on his arm. The sign outside said they were good for three hours - how long has this guy been here? That's, like, $100 worth of wristbands!

 

Zoro can already tell in the brief thirty seconds they’ve known each other that this is going to be nothing but a massive migraine. _Pull it together, Roronoa, you’re already basically halfway done with this "date"_. God, the kid is loud. He says Sanji’s name wrong, but Zoro doesn’t feel like correcting.

 

Zoro takes his hand after long enough hesitation. “Zoro,” he introduces.

 

“I know! I’m Luffy. Come on, look at this, I was looking at it before I ran into you, it’s so _cool_ ,” he reaches out and tugs on Zoro’s wrist-band free forearm. They don’t know each other like that, Zoro wants to argue and pull away, but Sanji’s voice echoes through his head - _don’t blow this_.

 

Knowing Sanji, he’d download that stupid app that got Zoro in this mess in the first place, hack into his account, and question Luffy on how the supposed date went, just so he could lord it over Zoro’s head. Honestly, this isn’t even a what-if in Zoro’s mind, it’s something that’s _bound_ to happen the minute this ends. He gets a bad enough review, and the backing off Zoro longs for won’t come to pass.

 

 _Do it for the eventual silence_ , Zoro reminds himself as he lets the strange Luffy tug him into the first room.

 

At the very least, the guy really is cute. Zoro’s type, with the whole dark hair and eyes. He doesn’t seem to have a personality that Zoro can keep up with (he’s exhausted and the whole thing’s only just begun) but he’s only thinking _maybe_ he should give it a chance. Maybe. Like he said, he doesn’t really plan to make this more than a one time struggle, and as cute as Luffy he is, it’s not enough to warrant changing his mind. The scar under his left eye strikes Zoro’s curiosity in a way that brings that _maybe_ out full force.

 

Damn it.

 

Zoro didn’t expect much from the place just by how the outside of the building and the lobby looked. Really, if Sanji was going to make him go on a blind date to an aquarium (that costs >$30, no less), than you’d think his pretentious, hipster ass would’ve had the decency to pick a _good_ one. Then again, maybe the whole hipster thing is why Sanji chose this one instead. He's all about Supporting Your Local Community, after all.

 

Whatever the reason, it’s just another one on Zoro’s list of “Reasons to Curse Sanji Out”. Even the fish look sad. Luffy, on the other hand, is not paying any sort of attention to Zoro, and is wearing a grin that’s almost painful to look at as he taps on the glass of the small tanks scattered throughout the darklit area.

 

“Check out this one, it’s called _slimehead_ !” Luffy announces, pointing to a viciously ugly reddish-orange fish with eyes wide and _judgemental_.

 

Zoro’s not enough of an asshole to bring his blind date’s spirits down. He might even say the excitement is contagious if he’s hard pressed. “I fish, sometimes.” There, now he’s making conversation. It’s a thin line to walk between “get a good review” but “avoid a second date”.

 

“Whoa, really?” Luffy asks, but doesn’t look away from staring intensely at the colorful school of fish swarming around in the tank. He laughs at it like it’s a show they’re doing just for him before he turns to Zoro. “I always thought that’d seem really _boring_.”

  
“It’s not that bad,” Zoro shrugs. “It’s relaxing.”

 

“Hm,” is all Luffy has to say about that, and suddenly Zoro feels very defensive over his hobby. It’s a pain in the ass to go the lake way outside the city, so the effort he puts into the craft has to be _worth_ it in some way, even if it’s convincing one person that fishing really isn’t _boring_.

 

“Well - you like pirates right?”

 

“I don’t _like_ pirates, I _am_ a pirate,” Luffy corrects. He crosses his arms and squints at Zoro. “Why?”

 

Zoro doesn’t know what he could possibly mean by that and decides not to delve into it further. The last time he tried talking to somebody he didn’t really understand he ended up getting twenty-three messages in a row from her. “There’s this one fish, see it all the time. It’s called a pirate perch.”

Luffy looks curious but tries to pretend he’s not by narrowing his eyes further.

 

“It, uh,” Zoro doesn’t understand why the intensity of Luffy’s gaze bothers him as much as it does. “It’s kinda weird, because its- uh - anus is in its throat.” He read that in a book once.

  
Luffy blinks at him.

 

“Okay, moving on,” Zoro gestures forwards towards the doors that open into the hopefully more exciting/less awkward tunnels of water that Zoro more expected from an aquarium.

 

He never wants to go fishing again after this.

~X~

In hindsight, it could have been a whole lot worse.

 

The sharks were the only part Zoro really enjoyed, even though there were only two in sight and they seemed rather miserable being in a tank so small. Still, Zoro related to them. Luffy got a starfish stuck to his face about halfway through the tour when they were just supposed to be petting it and it was probably the funniest thing Zoro’s ever seen; it was the first time he’s laughed that hard and what’s probably been a pathetically tragic long while.

 

Luffy really was cute. There wasn’t a whole lot of the usual boring “So what do you do” conversation in which Zoro had to explain how shitty his construction job is and listen to what a great time it is for someone else to have the usual 9 to 5; Luffy found plenty of entertainment waving his arms at sting rays and blending in with the kids who looked at them in awe. Zoro didn’t have to say much and he much preferred it that way. It really didn’t feel as clunky as any other first date Zoro’s been on. He wonders if Luffy was even considering it as much.

 

There was an instance near the end in which Zoro looked at Luffy a little too long, accidently, while he stared wide-eyed at the glowing jellyfish. The soft pinks and purples of the tank lighting reflected on Luffy’s face nearly hid his answering blush when Zoro was caught. If he had intended to take things any further, it would’ve been an opportunity for the ages.

 

“That was _awesome_ , I wanna go again,” Luffy announces when the tour ends and loops them background to the lobby. That same girl is there, Camie, and she wavoes at Luffy when they leave. Zoro wonders if they know each other, or if it has something to do with the three wristbands Luffy hasn’t taken off yet.

 

“It just made me really want some sushi,” Zoro says.

 

Luffy looks at him like he’s been horribly, personally offended. “They’ll hear you.”

 

“Who?”  
  
“The _fish_.”

  
“I -” Zoro blinks. Between all the laughter and fun moments, he almost missed how fucking strange this guy really is. “I’ll send them an apology letter,” he says rather scatchingly.

 

Luffy snickers in response (Zoro’s glad he didn’t take it too seriously) before a phone that isn’t his chimes from a pocket; Luffy takes his out and glances at the screen. “Oh, shoot, my ride’s here! I had a lot of fun, we should to it again some time! No fishing though.” Zoro can’t tell if the sudden hurry is because Luffy doesn’t mean anything he’s saying, or because he doesn’t want to keep his ride waiting. Zoro automatically assumes is the former. Not that he cares. Right?

 

“Oh, yeah, thanks,” Zoro doesn’t know what he’s doing by holding his hand out but he does it anyway.

 

Luffy looks at it and then smiles, shaking it once. “Tell Sanji I said hi!” And then he’s running off and out the doors and that’s the last Zoro thinks he’ll ever see of PirateKing.

 

~X~  
  
  
“You _shook his hand_ ?!” Sanji screeches loud enough to call the attention of three different patrons at their local Starbucks.  
  
  
“Keep it down,” Zoro chastises. “It’s not that big of a deal, I told you I didn’t want it to be anything serious.”

 

“Okay, but you liked him right? You just got done telling me about the starfish incident. You guys had a good laugh! So why’d you _shake his hand_ -”

“What is your problem?” Zoro interrupts, annoyed, and then sighs exasperatedly. “Give it up, dartbrow, not everyone’s out to live your American hetero dream. Just leave me alone.” Speaking of, there’s nothing he wants more in this world than a nap right now. He probably should order some caffeine to keep him awake long enough to finish this conversation, but he’d rather sleep than listen to Sanji sputter any longer.

 

“Why are you _so_ insistent on being lonely and miserable.”

 

“Not everybody has to be in a relationship to -”

 

“No, don’t liberal lecture me,” Sanji snorts. “I get all that, I don’t _understand it -_ have you seen girls? - but it’s fine, or whatever. But you’re not one of those people -”

 

“I always have been,” Zoro corrects, and he’s about two seconds away from getting up and leaving the table. Sanji’s whole obsession with this thing has been driving Zoro crazy, both because the shitty cook won't leave him the fuck alone, and, mostly, because he can’t figure out _why_ he’s being so pushy.

 

“But _why_ , if you liked him, you said he was cute!”  
  
  
“Okay, I’m leaving now,” Zoro stands up.

 

“Just give me one solid reason why you wouldn’t want to go out with Luffy again, and I’ll leave you alone,” Sanji swears, crossing his finger over his heart. He’s so fucking stupid.  
  
  
“Because I don’t want to.”

 

“Not good enough -”

 

“Bye,” Zoro leaves the table. He knows what Sanji’s doing, he took _one_ psychology class and suddenly he thinks he can psychoanalyze the fuck out of anybody who comes walking his way, _especially_ Zoro. He’s been trying to crack into his head ever since, and he’d almost assign that to the reason why Sanji’s so desperate to play _Millionaire Matchmaker_ if not for - well, the desperate part of it. He’s never been this pushy about anything.

The really fucked up part of it is that the damn bastard got him _thinking_ . Why not? He signed for the website on his own in the first place, that had nothing to do with Sanji. He went out with the first two girls on his own, that didn’t require any cohersion. It’s definitely not the _guy_ thing because that’s never been a problem with Zoro, he doesn’t care.

It’s not even a _Luffy_ thing, because for all his eccentricness and the weird things he said, he didn’t drive Zoro up the wall the way most people do. If anything,there was something strangely alluring about him that makes that _maybe_ Sanji’s voice is shoving in both Zoro’s ears louder.

 

Zoro doesn’t owe Sanji an explanation though - he doesn’t need one for himself, either, he realizes, and with that newfound eureka he drops the matter entirely in his head and resigns himself to a night of sleep.

  
(It guest-starred the high school sweetheart he never wants to be reminded of, but that’s another issue entirely).

 

~X~

 

Sanji’s already solid habit of waking Zoro up via phone call at impromptu times has been increasingly frequent as of late. It’s been a week since his blind aquarium date and he’s been just as content as he predicted he would be, by himself, binging reality TV, and finding some crash time between his shitty work hours. Sanji’s kept his promise to back off thus far, which is a God given gift that Zoro’s not going to look in the mouth.

So, when Sanji yells, “Gallery tonight!” the moment Zoro breathes a half-awake hello, he doesn’t break his phone in his hand like he would have a week ago.  
  
  
“Stop fucking yelling - What?”

 

“The _Madhouse_ opening!” Sanji cries like it’s as obvious as the sky is blue.

 

Zoro rubs his eyes with his fist to get the rest of the sleep out of them. “They’re finally locking you up?”

 

“Shut up. You forgot,” Sanji accuses. Zoro thinks back to every conversation he’s had with his friend in the last week (which has been far too many) until he finally finds the one that’s associated with the name. Fuck, he totally forgot. Why did he even agree to something like that? That’s right up Sanji’s indie art kid alleyway, not his. Was there something in it for him that he forgot about?

  
Shit, and he had planned the rest of his day off with _American Ninja Warrior_ and a hot ramen date on his couch. He’s not missing out on that. “I did -” he starts, but Sanji sees right through him immediately.

 

“No, no, no, no getting out of this one, marimo!” he cries. “I promised my sweet girlfriend already.” Oh, so she’s his _girlfriend_ now. When did that happen? He’d stop tuning out on Sanji’s conversations so much if he talked about something that wasn’t boobs and seafood.

  
“Fuck off, shitty cook, it’s my only day off -” _Aw, fuck it_ he thinks. He’s gone around this bend with Sanji enough times now to know that there’s no convincing him of anything other than getting what he wants. Some friendship. Fuck it, he thinks again. “Alright, shit, what should I wear.” It’s only 2PM right now (Sanji ruined his mid-day nap), and if his dredged up memory serves him correctly Sanji will be showing up in three hours. Which at the rate Zoro goes, between fifteen minute naps, and _How It’s Made_ distractions, is about how long it’ll take him to get ready.

 

“The most hipster thing you own - oh, so that one flannel. And a hat, but not the one with the chibi ninja on it, it’s fucking horrendous even by hipster standards.”

 

Zoro really likes that hat. “You talk a lot of shit for someone who _is_ a hipster.”

 

“I’m a _gentleman_.”

 

Zoro has a half a mind to hang up at that with no warning, but gives Sanji the benefit of a, “I’ll see you later, _sir_ ,” before he does.

 

He ends up forgoing the hat, but at least remembers his reading glasses - that’ll make him blend in more right? Art kids are always wearing those black-framed geek chic shit, and his are thick-rimmed enough to pass as one of them. Sanji gives him a lot of shit for it their whole ride there. Zoro gives him just as much for claiming to be such a gentleman but not giving his own supposed “girlfriend” a ride to this shitty gallery opening.

 

“She’s a very independent lady!” Sanji defends. “That’s why I love her so much~*.”

 

“You can’t love somebody you’ve known for a month.” In all honesty, Zoro’s just trying to save his buddy from heartbreak, but that’s none of his business if the dumbass doesn’t want to listen.

 

Sanji’s stupid curly eyebrow creases. “We’ve been over this, marimo -”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” Fucking heteros.

  
He fully expects Sanji to launch into the whole PirateKing/Luffy thing again, but he’s surprisingly silent the rest of the way there. Probably thinking gross thoughts about his _girlfriend_ , and Zoro’s not willing to get into that even if someone told him to do it at gunpoint, so he relishes in the silence. He’s thinking maybe he can squeeze in a five minute nap before they get there when Sanji turns sharply into a parking lot.  
  
  
The gallery Sanji drags Zoro too is adjacent to one of the many museums their city has. The building is painted in bright colors that mimic the aquarium sign, but everything else is far too nice to spread that comparison further. “This place looks like a damn migraine,” Zoro comments when they get out of the car.

  
Sanji wipes a spot off his hood with the sleeve of his dress shirt before throwing the blazer in his hand on. Zoro’s biggest surprise about the girlfriend thing is how Sanji managed to get one when he’s too busy fucking his car on the side. It’s a white Cadillac which explains _everything_ and is in true Sanji fashion.

 

“You’re a damn migraine,” Sanji returns, then checks his watch. “The opening ceremony’s in twenty minutes, so we have time to catch up with them.”

  
“Them?” Zoro asks. He was only expecting the infamous girlfriend he’s heard so much about.

 

Sanji doesn't answer, choosing instead to shove Zoro as they head towards the entrance of the museum. The gallery part is adjacent to it; Zoro’s been in construction long enough to tell that it was an add-on as opposed to part of the original floor plan. It’s rather small. Must be more for the university than any renowned artist, especially if all the college-age kids lingering around are anything to go by. They’re all dressed in ripped jeans and match Zoro’s flannel with their scarves.

Sanji leads them inside, wherein just as many hipsters are gathered around in varying groups, holding plastic champagne flutes. There’s another entrance for the main part of the museum on the left, but other than that it’s pretty cramped; there’s thick cardboard paper covering what Zoro can only assume are paintings and photographs and whatever else it is the art kids do these days.

  
“Sanji!” an unfamiliar voice calls. Zoro steps out of the way just in time for a dark-skinned boy with an _impressive_ nose wrapping Sanji up in a quick hug. His thick curly hair is barely tamed under a bandana - coupled with the spyglass tattoo on his upper arm, Zoro has to give this guy the cake for Ultimate Art Student Look.

 

After he steps back, Sanji grins in greeting. Zoro raises an eyebrow. “Usopp! How are you feeling?”

 

“Nervous.” Usopp wrings his hands. “Oh, you must be Zoro!” He extends his hand and when Zoro takes it, his palm is sweaty. Gross. “Sanji’s said a lot about you.”

 

“Has he.” Zoro side-eyes.

 

Usopp laughs nervously and shoots Sanji an expression that has _help me_ written all over it. Damn, Zoro didn’t think he was that scary. “I’m so glad you’re here,” Usopp goes on to say, more to Sanji than Zoro. Zoro really didn’t want to come as it was, why is he here? Who was promised?

 

“It’ll be great, don’t worry.” Sanji claps Usopp on the shoulder; the latter flinches at the force of it. Sanji’s using his “I Took One Whole Psychology Class, I Know How to Be a Therapist” voice. At least it seems to be kind of working as Usopp shakes his head and relaxes his shoulders.

“You know how it goes, you slave thirteen hours straight over a painting only to trash it and start all over, am I right?” Usopp nudges Zoro like he’s supposed to know that feeling well.

  
  
“I demolished a building once,” Zoro answers.

 

Usopp visibly swallows.

“Alright!” Sanji claps his hands together. “Where is the loveliest lady in the room?” He scans the crowd, standing on his toes despite the fact that his legs are already so ridiculously long that it’s unwarranted to see over the crowd.

 

“She’s showing someone the hors d'oeuvres,” Usopp waves off. “Oh, here she comes now! Nami, over here!” He waves his arm over his head to call her over. The girl who approaches them is actually _very_ pretty, with curly ginger hair that Zoro hardly believes is natural. She’s the nicest one dressed in the room, wearing a mid-thigh length dress that reflects all the fancy lights the gallery has strung up all over the ceiling. Zoro doesn’t understand how somebody as pretty and well put-together as she seems to be can be with somebody like _Sanji_ .  
  
“Nami ♥ !!!”  Sanji cries and Zoro thinks he’s on the verge of spontaneously combusting. He practically bounces over to the girl, Nami, and throws an arm around her shoulder, covering her face with light kisses. “I’m so happy to see you, my sweet!”

 

“Alright, Sanji, please,” she laughs, pushing him off gently, but Zoro doesn’t miss the flash of annoyance in her eyes.

 

“You look absolutely _dashing_ , my dear, truly marvelous!” Sanji’s still saying, face so red with how overwhelmed he is. Zoro feels like he should leave the room before he sees a side of Sanji he never wants to. “The most beautiful one in the room~!”  
  
“I know,” Nami answers, flipping her hair over her shoulder. _Is she serious . . . ?_

 

After another compliment, and an awkward laugh from Usopp, it becomes clear to Zoro that if he wants to get introductions out of the way, he better be the one to do it. “Zoro.” He reaches a hand out.

 

“Oh.” Nami takes it, giving Zoro a sly look. “Wow, Sanji, you weren’t kidding about the hair.”

 

Zoro touches his head self-consciously as Sanji downright _cackles_ . “I know! Drives me crazy. Your hair is _beautiful_ , though, Nami ♥.”

 

The moment Nami starts getting into the details of what hairspray she used, Zoro takes the opportunity to duck out as quickly as possible, immediately going on the hunt for the source of all the champagne he’s seeing everybody drinking. He’s not a huge fan of it himself, has never been one for the fancy wines or anything, but unless they have an open bar with rum, he’ll have to make do. Free alcohol is free alcohol after all.

 

The gallery isn’t fancy enough to warrant waiters carrying around trays of the stuff, and he finally finds a collection of flutes arranged on a wide table wedged against one of the walls. It takes some elbowing to get there, but as soon as he does he picks two flutes up in each of his hands. They’re rather small, he thinks. He downs one, puts the empty fake-glass on the table, and picks up another.

 

He’s trying to decide whether or not he wants to subject himself to more Sanji fawning over Nami, or just go outside and get some fresh air. It's getting crowded again, and he really does hate crowds; he barely made it out of the aquarium alive.

 

Why he’s thinking about the aquarium right now is beyond him, though.  Maybe it’s because the person standing next to him, shoving crackers down his throat at an alarming rate, is wearing a familiar strawhat. Funny, too, he even has an eye scar. Actually . . .

 

Oh, no.

 

No way.

 

“Luffy?”

 

The kid looks up with wide eyes, cheeks stuffed full chipmunk-style, one hand already halfway into shoving another cracker in his mouth. He stares at Zoro blankly for a moment, then squints, swallowing. “Do I know you?”

 

This could be his golden opportunity to duck out now, pretend this never happened, down his champagne in the parking lot and wait for this whole thing to be over. It’s really what he should do. It’s the moral thing to do.  He misses the opportunity. “You don’t recognize me.” Huh, the date hadn’t been that great, as far a dates go, but he didn’t think it was _that_ bad. It’s only been a week, not exactly long enough to forget.

 

Luffy stares for a moment longer than holds a thumb out in front of him, squinting one eye, like he’s trying to examine at Zoro from a different angle. He tilts it at several different directions before something clicks and his expression changes into a large grin. “You’re Zoro!”

 

For a brief moment ( _so_ brief, barely a second, he swears), he can’t get over the way Luffy smiles at him. “I was wondering what happened to you,” Luffy goes on to say; he gets through three more crackers, still talking, face full. “I didn’t even recognize you with those glasses! It’s like your Clark Wayne.”

 

It takes Zoro a moment to understand that. “Clark Kent?”

  
“Um, no, I’m pretty sure it’s Clark Wayne.”

  
  
Zoro downs another flute.

 

“Why’re you here?” Zoro asks and realizes too late how blunt and accusing that sounds. He didn’t mean for it to, but at the same time, he’s still a little unsettled with Luffy’s announced appearance in _general_. He was so certain that would be a face he’d never see again. It doesn’t make him feel as antsy as he thought it would.

 

“For the free food, _duh ._ ” Luffy rolls his eyes before picking up what Zoro _thinks_ is a mini-sausage ( _hopes_ , at this point) and sandwiching it between two crackers.

 

“You don’t have like -” he waves to the various paintings and such still shielded from view. He notices out of the corner of his eye a man in a suit that’s almost an exact replica’s of Sanji’s (the only two in the entire room) detangling the cord of a microphone. “Art to show off?”

 

“No,” Luffy snickers around his makeshift sandwich. “I don’t do that stuff, that’s all Usopp! He’s great at drawing!”

 

“Usopp?” Zoro furrows his brow but any answer is lost in the screech of microphone feedback and a booming voice apologizing immediately.

 

“Sorry about that folks,” the man crows - he immediately launches into an introduction of the gallery, followed by a round of loud clapping Zoro feels he should partake in but doesn’t. Against his better judgement, he glances at Luffy to his side, who is putting more food into the pockets of his jeans, ignoring the proceedings entirely. It’s honestly kind of funny and Zoro presses a laugh into his fist as not to call attention to them.

 

“What brought _you_ here?” Luffy asks suddenly when he catches Zoro looking at him. His voice is as equally loud as it always is and a couple of bystanders shoot him annoyed staring.  
  
  
“Friends dragged me,” Zoro answers, matching Luffy’s volume just to piss off the prissy hipsters staring at them. “I don’t know a damn thing about art.”

 

Luffy chuckles, again, that _shishishi_ sound that has no right to be as endearing as it is. It’s not as loud as his words, but it’s the final straw for another blonde, Sanji-look alike that marches over to a nearby security guard.

 

“Uh oh,” Luffy says when he notices. “Are you any good at fighting?”

“Huh?” Zoro asks as the guard approaches.

 

“Is there a problem over here, gentlemen?” the guard asks with beefy arms that could give Zoro’s a run for their money crossed over his chest. He isn’t really glaring at Luffy so much as Zoro, which is entirely unfair, as the former is what called him over in the first place.

 

“Not at all,” Zoro replies, as condescending as possible. “We were just talking-”

 

“Do you wanna fight?” Luffy asks suddenly, throwing his fists in the air in front of his face like a boxer. “I’m not giving back the food, it’s supposed to be free!”

 

“Fight - “ the guard stutters, then yanks a walkie talkie out of his belt. It’s cheap-looking, like one of those kiddie ones you find in the toy aisles of a Wal-Mart clearance section, so Zoro can’t take it too seriously. If Luffy keeps up this antic though, maybe he should. “Requesting back up,” the guard continues, and Zoro thinks _that’s_ the guy who’s taking his little gallery job _way_ too seriously.

 

“You’ll never catch me alive,” Luffy proclaims, then grabs Zoro’s wrist and starts yanking him through the crowd.

 

“Whoa, let go -” Zoro starts to pull away, but Luffy’s unrelenting and only _laughs_ at Zoro (as he’s always doing, Zoro’s starting to believe). More than anything, he doesn’t want Luffy to end up pulling them right through Sanji’s path because he’s already decided that is not a door he wants to re-open. They only ran into each other by some _bizarre_ coincidence. Sanji would start screaming about how true love always finds a way if he knew.

 

Luffy only lets go the minute they step outside; Zoro’s glad for the fresh air, but isn’t so happy with the circumstances surrounding it. Luffy’s still laughing like the whole event was the funniest joke he’s ever heard. “Oh, man, that was so fun!” he throws his arms in the air. “It’s like we’re criminals.”

 

“Don’t see how that’s fun -” Zoro starts to say, but can’t help but grin at Luffy’s excitement. “Do you think they’ll put a search out for us inside?”

 

“I hope so! Ugh,” Luffy puts a hand over his stomach. “I’m still _hungry_. Come on, there’s this really cool park nearby that has all these food trucks.”

 

Luffy’s already turning around and heading in the opposite direction; Zoro automatically takes a step to follow before he catches himself. Shit, what is he doing? “My friends are inside,” he says.

 

Luffy looks at him over his shoulder. “So?”

 

“I should get back to them,” Zoro points over his shoulder. Luffy frowns. “I’m sure that bastard guard will leave me alone.”

 

“Well, I already decided you’re coming to get fried pickles with me,” Luffy argues, crossing his arms defiantly. “So you’re coming.”

Zoro blinks at him. “You can’t just decide that for people.”

 

“Too late, I already did it!” Luffy steps forward again, grabbing hold of Zoro’s hand this time. Zoro’s palm breaks out into a sweat immediately, which is _stupid_ , this whole thing was stupid, he was never supposed to see this kid again and now he’s trying to convince him to run away together to skeevy food truck land.

 

“Come on, Zoro, it’ll be _boring_ by myself,” Luffy pouts, pulling on Zoro’s hand.

 

Well, he supposes, it doesn’t have to mean anything. He doesn’t really want to be in that gallery anyway. Still, he didn’t even get to see any of the art. Zoro thinks it’s mute trying to go back and forth with himself on it, because as much as his head’s still at war, his feet have already chosen for him to follow Luffy, who still hasn’t let go of his hand. His grip is loose enough that Zoro could pull away if he really wanted to. He should.

 

Maybe it’s the cheap champagne making him all fuzzy and confused, although it typically takes Zoro a lot more than that to even get a buzz. Really strong champagne then, that’s the only explanation. He realizes he still has a now half-empty flute in his free hand, and can’t decide if having more is a good idea or not.

  
Either way, it seems as if he’ll be going after Luffy after all.

~X~

 

Zoro probably should have asked how far this _park was_ before he agreed to trek seemingly across town for it. They’re fifteen minutes down the main road, and Luffy nearly got them killed by dragging  Zoro’s across the street when the walk wasn’t lit. He would have yelled at the truck that honked at them under any other circumstances, but even had to admit Luffy was the one at fault on that one. It didn’t matter to the latter though - he was unphased by their impending doom as one more car screeched around them before they made it safely to the other side.  
  
“It’s this one, look!” Luffy points to a sign that says _Arlong Park_ in blue letters. The name sounds familiar to Zoro, and hopes it doesn’t have something to do with Sanji like his brain’s nagging him it does; he’s too busy finally finishing the last of that champagne and wondering what kind of mess he’s gotten himself into to study it further.

  
“I hope fried pickle guy is here, that would _suck_ if he wasn’t,” Luffy laments. The park isn’t really much of a park as much as a patch of grass roughly the size of a Walgreens parking lot, with various food vendors lined up in rows. None of them look particularly appetizing _or_ sanitary, and no matter how hard Zoro squints at them, he can’t seem to find a health code grade displayed anywhere. He’s no official, but he’s pretty sure that’s somehow illegal.

  
“Sometimes he is, though, but if he isn’t, then you have to try this taco truck,” Luffy babbles over Zoro’s thoughts. “Are you listening, Zoro? Wait, there he is!” He goes on to exclaim before Zoro can answer that yes, he absolutely is, way more attentively than he’s going to give himself credit for. Luffy bounds over to a food truck done up in a horrible shade of green, an equally atrocious orange and white awning hanging over the window.

 

“Hey, mister!” Luffy greets the poor sap looking hot and miserable inside the truck. The guy doesn’t even bother to attempt any kind of customer service as he raises an eyebrow at Luffy. “Can I get your largest order of the fried pickle chips - actually no,” he thinks about it for a moment, “Make that three! Three large orders.”

 

Zoro doesn’t think that many fried pickles are necessary, but Luffy is bouncing on his feet like he can barely wait to eat even just one of them. He thinks back to the aquarium, in which Luffy had already beaten him to the punch in not only paying to get in (three times, Zoro still speculates), but had vanished at one point for five minutes only to reappear with a corndog from seemingly nowhere. Either way, that means Zoro hadn’t gotten the chance to be courteous one, as he was _supposed_ to since Sanji assumingly forced the poor kid to go on a bad (? Was it really that bad, Zoro still wonders) blind date.

  
“I got it,” Zoro concludes his train of thought with, stepping in front of Luffy with his wallet already out.  
  
“Wow, thanks!” Luffy smiles. Not a moment later three _very large_ containers, about the size of both of Zoro’s open palms each are being placed on the ledge towards them. Luffy picks two of them up immediately. “I’ll pay you back!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Zoro reassures, although he feels technically he should, because Zoro’s rethinking the the whole being chivalrous thing when he catches wind of the total.

 

Luffy’s too busy stuffing his face to really talk to as they start winding their way through the rest of the park; it’s surprisingly quiet, with a few families here and there, but nothing major. Zoro supposes it has to do with the weather - summer’s coming up and the heat is set to a steady simmer before it threatens to boil within the next few weeks. Luffy’s already dressed like he’s welcoming the warm weather with open arms, wearing shorts and a tank featuring a band logo that Zoro’s never heard of. Looking at him, Zoro accidently notices a freckle on his shoulder. He feels like he’s crossed a line somewhere and glances away.

  
“Do you like it?” Luffy asks suddenly, having already completely swallowed an entire tray. Zoro’s only been picking at it because fried food never sits well with him as it is, plus he drank all that champagne awfully fast. It didn’t do anything for him besides make him a little bit nauseous.

  
Zoro decides on being honest. “Not really.”

 

“Haha, well in that case, I’ll eat it!” Luffy takes it and shovels more chips in his mouth.

 

“You’re like a vacuum,” Zoro can’t help but comment, with just a touch of disgust; more impressed, though, really. Luffy must have the metabolism of a racehorse.

  
As if reading his mind, Luffy says, “Grandad says I have a _wicked_ fast metabolism. I just know that I love food.” He puts another fried pickle chip in his mouth to punctuate his sentence.

 

Zoro suddenly finds himself looking to keep the conversation going; not necessarily _scramble_ , because that’s ridiculous, and implies that he’s putting forth any _real_ effort. Maybe he just doesn’t want to be bored, and Luffy’s not a boring person, so talking to him is - relevant to his current situation. That’s all it is. “My best friend cooks all the time.” Fuck, why’s it gotta be _Sanji_ that comes up. _Best friend_ , oh God, he’s nauseous now. It was an on the whim sentence, okay.

  
“Oh, I know, he makes the best octopus - Zoro, look at that!” Luffy exclaims suddenly, pointing to a fence that serves as the south border of the park. Zoro’s still hung up on Luffy’s claim - since when has he had Sanji’s cooking? What? They only talked via that fucking app, as far as Zoro knows?

 

“Look!” Luffy repeats, dumping what’s left of his fried pickles in the nearest trash can so he can bound over to where the wooden fence has a large, black and red sign on it that says NO TRESPASSING

 

“What about it?” Zoro pauses. “You know Sanji?”

 

“ _Duh_ , he set us up, remember? Dare me to hop the fence!” Luffy tries to peek between the spaces between the paneled wood but sighs in frustration when he can’t seem to see anything. “I wonder what’s over there!”

 

“It says no trespassing,” Zoro points out the obvious. “It’s probably just somebody’s private property.”

“Don’t be so _boring_ again,” Luffy pouts. _Again_?  “Boost me over the fence!”

 

“I’m not boring,” Zoro defends, immediately stepping forward to lace his fingers together. “Alright come on, before someone sees.” _I can’t believe i’m fucking doing this_ . To prove what? Does it really matter if Luffy thinks that way of him? It’s been coming back to haunt him ever since the whole _forgetting_ thing, so, bitterly, he thinks it does matter. It’s more of a pride thing than anything else, he’s certain.

 

“Haha, hell yeah!” Luffy yells out, pumping his fist in the air once before taking his shoes off and stepping into Zoro’s cupped hands. Of course he’d be the kind to wear sneakers without socks. Zoro would protest this whole thing for that notion alone if his pride wasn’t on the line.

 

Luffy practically _topples_ over the fence, and there’s a thud on the other side that’s concerning. “You okay?” Zoro calls.

 

“I’m great!” Luffy answers from the other side. Zoro sees an eye appear in between one of the slats that makes him jump. “How are you gonna get over?”

  
Zoro only has a couple inches on Luffy, but it’s enough to make it over the fence just fine. He has a lot of upper body strength - comes with the job he has. He gets a splinter wedged between his thumb and forefinger in the process of hoisting himself over, and nearly impales his abdomen on the pointed top as well, but he manages to get over and land on his feet next to Luffy without further incident. They probably attracted a lot of attention doing that, but if fried pickle guy was any indication on how the rest of the food vendors are feeling, the two of them will be fine.

 

Fuck, what has he gotten himself into this time.

  
First the security guard incident, now illegal trespassing? Zoro’s absolutely _not_ boring, and runs a stop sign when no one else is around; he doesn’t have any sort of hyper awareness of the _law_ or anything like that, but he has a job that cares more than he does. He shouldn’t be hopping fences with boys he barely knows. He’s an adult now.

 

Luffy, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to care. “Whoa, check out this _field_!” He’s about to go tearing into it at full speed, legs braced and everything, but Zoro catches him by the sleeve of his shirt.

 

“Whoa, be careful, there’s probably snakes.”

 

Luffy’s eyes widen at comical levels. “Wow! I hope so! Do you think we can catch one?”

 

“No,” Zoro says immediately. He has to be the one to draw a line somewhere, since Luffy doesn’t even have a metaphorical writing utensil in either of his hands. Luffy looks disappointed for a flash, but it quickly turns to frustration.  
  
  
“If we see a snake, I’m catching it, and you can’t stop me.” He crosses his arms defiantly. Zoro likens him to a petulant child.

 

“I’m not helping you,” Zoro replies.

 

“I don’t need you to.” Luffy sticks his tongue out and then goes off bounding through the field he was so excited about. It’s a seemingly endless stretch of overgrown grass, a vivid green to match the aesthetics of the approaching summer. It’d be nice if there wasn’t litter everywhere; a plastic bag catches on the wind and nearly hits him in the face, which requires some very careful ducking and maneuvering action to avoid.

 

“Come on, you’re so slow,” Luffy teases, glancing behind him to give Zoro another one of those overbearing _grins_. Zoro wonders how his face doesn’t just ache all the time from doing that, he can’t even get one in without his cheeks being sore.

 

“Not everyone’s blood is made of Redbull,” Zoro gripes.

 

Luffy stares flatly at Zoro. “I don’t drink Redbull.”

 

Zoro wishes he had more champagne.

 

The sea of grass tapers off into a torn-up, pothole infested road in the distance, but before that is a shack-sized building that only passes as a house because of the satellite dish attached to the roof. One of the windows is broken, held together for dear life by peeling duct tape. “Ooh,” Luffy comments when they stumble across it, running up to it. It’s risen off the ground like a trailer, held by cinder blocks.

 

“Hang on -” Zoro tries to stop him but Luffy’s already pounding on the door like a police officer, heavy fisted and all.

  
“Hey!” Luffy calls,stretching on his toes to peek through the cracked window and see inside. “Have you seen any snakes around here?”

  
“You can’t just knock on random people’s doors,” Zoro attempts to stop him, but every time he’s tried to associate Luffy with the word _can’t_ so far, it’s fallen through. He sighs and resigns, thinking this will be his last attempt. Luffy’s the kind of guy who does what he wants no matter what, Zoro can tell. It’s almost admirable if it didn’t get Zoro in so much potential trouble.

  
“There’s no answer,” Luffy says, then turns with a smile that’s wicked this time. “Door’s unlocked.”

 

“It only counts as pirating if it’s in the ocean, y’know,” Zoro says. What else did he expect but Luffy to drag him into breaking into a random hermit’s house-shack?

 

“I just wanna find a net or something.”  
  
  
“You can catch snakes without breaking into people’s houses,” Zoro reminds him. “Let’s get out of here, it’s giving me the creeps.” He gestures to the dilapidated trailer in a presentation of how weird it is, just sitting out here. As much as he’s certain nothing could convince Luffy to do anything other than he wants, and has already signed himself over to that fact, he at least has to make a - however feeble - attempt to stop him.

 

“What, am I supposed to use my _hands_ ,” Luffy scoffs. “Don’t be stupid, Zoro, they might be vengeance.”

 

Zoro raises an eyebrow. “There are snakes out for revenge?”

 

“No, vengeance. Like poisonous. Except when they bite you,” Luffy rolls his eyes. “Did you even _go_ to school?”

 

Zoro’s jaw twitches. “Venemous.”

 

“Yeah, that’s what I said!” Luffy opens the front door wide out suddenly and lifts a leg to climb inside. “Come _on_ \- Whoa.” There’s suddenly a loud, intensive barking, which is strange because there was no sign of such when Luffy was throwing his fists against the door earlier. Zoro doesn’t have time to inspect the semantics of it, because the dog yapping at Luffy has bared teeth and is ready to _maul_.

 

Luffy seems unphased, and would have probably tried to pet the damn thing had Zoro not swooped in to pick him up and set him on the ground. It was a shock of adrenaline that made him to do it, but as soon as his brain catches up with the action a knot forms beneath his sternum. It doesn’t seem to matter much to Luffy though, who bubbles with laughter and grabs Zoro’s hand again to take off running in the other direction, the dog still woofing loudly behind him.

 

As irritated as he initially was about the whole charade, Zoro has to admit that Luffy’s laughter and sense of adventure is outright _contagious_ . Without realizing he, he starts laughing right along with him, and almost forgets they’re still holding hands when they make it all the way back to the fence, wheezing and snickering.  
  
  
“You almost got us killed,” Zoro says.  
  
  
“Yeah, but we would have had fun doing it!” Luffy beams. “I’m still not leaving until I get my snake.”  
  
  
“Where would you even keep it,” Zoro questions; he remembers, suddenly, that his fingers are still wound tight around Luffy’s and let’s go, quickly, like he’s been burned. He hopes that Luffy doesn’t take offense.

 

He doesn’t even seem to notice. “In my tank _duh_. With my pet beetle.”

 

Zoro blinks. “The snake would eat your beetle.” Who has a pet beetle anyway? Why is he even surprised, though, this is Luffy he’s talking about.

  
A look of sheer horror crosses Luffy’s face and it’d be disconcerting under more serious circumstances. In this moment, Zoro just finds it kind of funny. “I changed my mind, I don’t want a snake. I love my beetle. Let’s leave! Do the thing again,” he instructs, waving to Zoro’s hands.

 

Zoro sighs, but concedes. After another hoist, another thump, another, “You okay?”, and one more wooden picket fence stab to his abdomen, both of them get back over, arriving back on scene of Arlong Park like nothing had changed. Albeit a short adventure, and probably not very eventful, considering there wasn’t a single snake to be seen, Zoro feels like he’s done more in the past ten minutes than in the last ten _months_. He’s exhausted.

 

There’s a brief, awkward (for Zoro) moment of silence as the tread carefully back onto the path that leads out of the park; he’s so sure fried pickle guy is giving them knowing glares, and probably thinks some really fucked up shit went down in that field. Zoro gives him a dark stare back.

 

“We’re going back there, one day!” Luffy announces suddenly. “I wanna know who lives there.”

 

Zoro sighs, but can’t help the small smile on his face. The champagne has all since worn off, contributing to the dull headache starting to thrum at Zoro’s temples, so he can’t blame that on his eerie feelings of relaxation. He can hardly believe he’s not at all stressed, or concerned, or anything, about taking off from the gallery with Luffy to go on a weird, however short-lived journey. In fact, he’d forgotten it existed _entirely_ . The shock of remembering makes him grab his phone out of his pocket (that has somehow survived this whole stint). There’s 3 Messages from Sanji asking where he is, the last one ending with **IM GOING TO KILL YOU.**

 

“Shit,” he curses under his breath. Luffy leans over as if to try and read Zoro’s phone; Zoro shoots him a glare and Luffy does that odd _shishishi_ again.

 

“Thanks for the fried pickles! Sorry I thought you were so boring.” He smiles at Zoro.

 

“It’s okay - wait,” he pauses. “You really thought that?”

 

Luffy shrugs. “Yeah, at the aquarium! I was all, ‘holy shit fish’, and you were just kind of like,” he scrunches his eyebrows together in an impression. “‘Yeah, whatever’. Fish are cool, Zoro.”

 

Any of the defensiveness Zoro felt earlier is quickly replaced with a sting of embarrassment. He never really had the desire to impress Luffy in any way, but it’s unsatisfying to know that he thought of him that way. Luffy obviously isn’t the kind of person to hold negative feelings over something trivial like that, but Zoro feels this irrational need to apologize. He doesn’t, though, because he has an M.O. to keep.

  
Before he can formulate a politically correct reply, Luffy pulls his own phone from his pocket and rolls his eyes at it. “Looks like we’re both in trouble! Let’s hurry back!” Before Zoro can ask for explanation, Luffy tugs on him much in the same mannerism he did to drag him to Arlong in the first place.

  
They’re halfway there, Zoro having rescued Luffy from walking on a crosswalk with oncoming traffic one more time, when Luffy’s phone goes off to signal a phone call. Zoro doesn’t recognize the tone; some odd cross between rap and something heavier, the guy chanting about how great it is to be drunk. It doesn’t fit Luffy at all.

  
  
“Whaaat,” Luffy drawls out in a whine as he answers it. He pulls it away from his ear, grimacing, and Zoro can overhear a female voice screeching through the other line. “But I was _hungry,_ ” Luffy answers when she finally pauses for breath. “I didn’t wander off by myself! But -” he frowns, pausing to let the other person speak. “Yeah, I’ll apologize. Okay.” He finally hangs up.

 

“You’re in way more trouble than I am,” Zoro teases. Luffy offers him another one of those sideways, cunning grins, but doesn’t reply to it.

 

“I have to _gooo_ ,” Luffy deflates, dropping his arms to his side to dangle limply for affect. “I’m gonna run ahead! Don’t get lost!” He starts waving goodbye, and something in Zoro feels like he should ask for a number or something, before he remembers who he is, and his plans in life to not include hopping fences again with the enigma that is this boy.

  
  
“I’ll see you again,” Luffy promises before he’s running off completely, and this time around, Zoro believes that.

  
~X~

  
“I thought I was going to have to call the police, we looked everywhere!” Sanji scolds the moment Zoro steps back into his vicinity. He didn’t get lost, exactly, just took a wrong turn down the block and took an extra fifteen minutes making his way back. By the time he gets there, the sun’s almost completely set, the city lights bleaching the sky of any and all stars. It’s kind of disappointing, if Zoro took the moment to be poetic about it. It’s the environment - all the art stuff makes him all, well, artsy. Gross.

 

Zoro shrugs. “Took a walk.”

 

“Oh, did you,” Sanji says suspiciously, crossing his arms. Usopp standing next to him mirrors the action.

  
“You missed everything,” Usopp announces. “I sold my prized painting for one _million_ dollars!”

 

“Really?” Zoro asks incredulously, giving Usopp a glare.

 

Usopp shrieks and ducks behind Sanji. “D-definitely!” he cries, despite having to cower behind the lankier cook. Zoro can almost see his nose growing longer like Pinnochio.

 

“I wouldn’t have called the police anyway,” Sanji sniffs indignantly, ignoring Usopp. “But in theory!”

 

“Shut up,” Zoro rubs his head. “You were worried, admit it.”

 

“As _if_ ,” Sanji snorts, and to keep up with his tough guy aesthetic sticks one of his signature cigarettes between his teeth. Usopp steps away from him immediately as he lights it and wrinkles his nose. Zoro does the same, but not because of the smell or anything - it’s because Sanji thinks he looks so _cool_ , but the guy smokes Virginia Sliims.

 

Looking at Usopp in the following silence, Zoro feels as if he was supposed to remember something. Something Luffy had said that had thrown him off, way before they even left, but he can’t think of it right now. He’s still caught up that he managed to run into him _again_ . On top of that, it’s not something he’s willing to share with Sanji. Not because he feels as if he has to _hide_ Luffy or anything ridiculous like that, it’s more that Sanji’s giving him shit for the mere notion of _taking a walk_ (which really isn’t technically untrue) and he thinks back to his insistence on the whole charade in the first place. Zoro’s last intention in life is to feed into any of Sanji’s satisfactions. He can hear the smirk and the “fate and destiny and true love” talk now.

 

Usopp shuffles nervously on his feet when he catches Zoro staring at him. “I really did sell the painting!”

“We’re very proud.” Sanji claps him on the shoulder in between drags, blowing his smoke in the other direction. At least he has the decency not to in Usopp’s face. Which is suspicious in his own right, because Sanji has absolutely no problem doing it to Zoro, or most others for that matter.

 

“Where’s Nami?” Zoro realizes. He’s kind of relieved, if he’s honest. Nami gives him the feeling that he should watch his wallet around her; he wonders what Sanji’s looks like. Probably nothing but cobwebs.

 

“She had to give L--” Usopp starts, but Sanji covers his mouth with his free hand.

  
“Her friend a ride home,” he finishes, removing his hand as Usopp blinks in confusion. He doesn’t say anything though.

  
“A friend,” Zoro repeats. Sanji’s fucking weird as it is, but he’s being _especially_ weird tonight, especially around this Usopp character. Zoro’s already formulating theories and the easiest he can come up with is Sanji and Nami acting as each other’s beards. Nami gave him that vibe, too, but Sanji . . . that’s almost _too_ far out there.  

 

“Speaking of ride homes.” Sanji flicks his cigarette off in the parking lot, still burning. What a Goddamn waste. “Both of you better get in or I’m leaving you here.”

 

“I call shotgun!” Usopp runs to the passenger side of the car before Zoro can react. Not that he particularly cares either way, but it’s kind of fun seeing Usopp all intimidated and scared of him, so maybe if he stares enough he’ll offer to take the backseat instead.

  
Sanji catches on not ten seconds into Zoro’s elaborate staredown. “Leave him alone, you monster,” he scolds. Zoro puts his hands up in mock submission.

 

Sanji makes sure to drop Usopp off at his apartment first (the latter actually bids Zoro goodbye, even though it comes out squeaky and still terrified; Zoro waves in response) before he starts tearing into Zoro about where he went. “I knew you’d get into the champagne, but I didn’t think it’d make you run off.”

 

“I barely had any,” Zoro denies. “Tasted like shit anyway.”

 

“Free booze is free booze,” Sanji points out. “Seriously, where the hell did you go?”

  
“I told you, I took a walk,” Zoro says bitterly. “Let it fucking go, cook. You’re so pushy about everything.” That’s really the most annoying part. He didn’t want to go to this anyway; Sanji’s always forcing him into shit for no reason, and no amount of Luffy’s or “I’m just trying to make you be social, marimo”s are going to lessen his irritation. He likes to be alone. He enjoys it. Even if he has the strange boy he coincidentally ran into reminding him of just how much he actually is.

  
Sanji falls silent, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. Zoro almost feels remorse, but this is Sanji they’re talking about; he’ll be over it by the morning. He’s just being sour because Luffy was one thing he couldn’t force Zoro into.

 

He drops him off in silence, leaving a bitter and irritated Zoro to deal with whatever weird dreams his brain decides to conjure tonight (it’s about a man trapped in a treasure chest, and Luffy’s smile is the most memorable part, but that’s not anything he’s going to dwell on).

  
~X~

 

Zoro gets not but a five day break from Sanji’s relentlessness. It was nice while it lasted (and if he’s just the slightest bit relieved that Sanji finally got over the whole gallery incident, well, that’s not something anybody needs to know).

 

He’s on his way home from work, sweaty and dirt-smeared and still wearing the disgusting long-sleeved bright yellow neon shirt  that serves as his uniform, when he gets the phone call. “Oi, mosshead, where you at?”  
  
  
“Why?” Zoro shoots back, already suspicious. There’s a loud clamoring in the background of the phone call, composed of an odd, unfamiliar buzzing and what vaguely sounds like someone yelling out in pain. Fuck that.

 

“Meet me at - wait, no, crossroads are useless with you. You know where that big ugly thrift shop is in between the museum from last week and the McDonald's?” Zoro doesn’t. “There’s a shop behind there. Meet me there.”

 

“What kind of shop?” Zoro questions, but already has a sick suspicion. “I just got off work, I’m not in the mood for bullshit -”

  
“This is your only chance to see me in pain,” Sanji offers. Zoro ponders that for a moment, and knows in Sanji-speak that it’s his way of apologizing for being a pushy dickwad. He has to decide whether seeing Sanji subjected to any type of pain and torture is worth missing out on his midday nap.

 

In the end, he thinks it is. “Fine. This better be good.” He hangs up before Sanji can talk him out of it by trying to talk him more into it.

 

It’s not good. It’s the opposite of good. It’s a fucking antiseptic-scented, crowded nightmare. The moment he sees TATTOO printed across the side of the building that takes him a solid hour to find he knows he’s made the biggest mistake of his fucking life. This isn’t happening to him; his karma’s not _that bad_.

 

“Fuck,” he says to himself when he parks. Really, he should just leave. “Fuck it,” he relents before getting out of his truck. His shirt makes him stick out like a goddamn billboard, and three heavily tattooed men stare at him with a snicker. This is it - this is finally what makes him murder his best friend.

 

He’s already blaming the whole situation on it being the unluckiest day of the year, so the moment he sees the sign tacked to the door of the shop announcing _Friday the 13th!_ with a collection of small designs he mutters to himself, “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”

 

When he steps inside, he’s instantly overwhelmed by the intensive buzzing coming from every direction and the headache he’s had since the gallery opening blooms into a damn _migraine_ . He’s only been in a shop once before, and that was only because he had gotten lost on his way to an appointment and had to stop and ask for directions. He knew even then this wasn’t a place he wanted to be. It’s crowded and _loud_ and the rubbing alcohol stench burns his nose.

 

Seeing Sanji amidst all the teenage girls with poorly done feathers on the tops of their sandal-clad feet . . . well, actually, he blends right in. “What are you doing here?” Zoro asks as he approaches where he’s waiting off to the side on a bench. Usopp’s there too, flipping through a portfolio with a critical eye.

 

“Zoro!” Usopp greets, seemingly lost all his intimidation from the week before. Sanji probably told him some really embarrassing secrets about Zoro, like how as tough as he is the movie _The Ring_ fucks him up every time.

 

“Friday the 13th tattoos, man.” Sanji puffs out his chest as if to disguise the fact that he’s an absolute fucking twink. “It’s this big thing.”

 

“I know what they are,” Zoro answers, taking the seat next to Usopp. His feet hurt almost as much as his head. “I’m not joining you on this one. Fuck you.”

 

“I always knew you were a chickenshit,” Sanji snickers.

 

“Call me what you want,” Zoro sniffs.” I don’t care about my pride enough to get a damn flash tattoo.”

 

“There’s nothing wrong with flash tattoos,” Usopp defends, sticking his calf out in Zoro’s direction to show off his collection of two entire leg tattoos; one of them is fresh, a cartoonish skull design that resembles a jolly roger, wrapped in saran.

 

“Didn’t really take you for a tattoo guy,” Zoro crosses his arms and leans back against the wall, giving Sanji a smirk. “Who talked you into this one?”

  
Sanji glances at Usopp for two seconds long enough for Zoro to catch it. “Everyone has one these days. Catch up with the times, old man! I can’t believe you’re too much of a _coward_ to join us.”

  
“Don’t change the subject,” Zoro accuses, scowling. “I’m just not interested.”

 

“Why not? Usopp has the audacity to challenge.

 

Zoro turns his scowl to him. “You know that’s permanent right?”

 

“That’s kind of the point,” Sanji argues. “Stop being a loser, marimo.” Before Zoro can get another word in edgewise about how idiotic this is  - but, really, if Sanji wants to commit himself to something like this that’s his business, just like getting tangled up in some girl he barely knows when his affections are starting to _clearly_ lie elsewhere - one of the artist’s approaches them and points lazily to Sanji; all that can be made out of his knuckle tattoos is an _E._

 

“You. Fishbone, right?”

  
  
Sanji nods and Zoro nearly loses his Goddamn mind. “I’m the loser, though. I need some air.”

 

“You’re gonna miss out!” Sanji calls after him as he ducks outside, trying to clear his head. The first time Sanji makes an effort to bother him weeks, and it’s over a fucking tattoo. A _flash_ tattoo at that. A fishbone flash tattoo.

 

Zoro doesn’t care if _others_ have tattoos, thats none of his business, but he’s never imagined himself with them. No matter what Sanji says, it’s not the _pain_ or even the _money_ or even the whole commitment thing. He’s surprised his supposed best friend hasn’t called him out on the last one though. It’s the idea itself - they age, and blur, and unless you're an artist yourself you’re fucked job-wise. Common sense. But that’s none of his business.

 

Zoro only wants to go back inside so he can borrow one of Sanji’s cigarettes to clear his head, but just as he turns around to he runs into somebody peeling saran wrap off their forearm, not paying attention. “Whoa, watch out -” he starts to say until familiar dark eyes blink up at him.

 

No.

 

Not again.

 

That’s fucking impossible.

 

“Zoro!” Luffy greets with a smile wide enough to nearly split his face in two. Zoro barely recognizes him without his signature straw hat, and the way his messy hair sticks up in every direction is _distracting_ . The probability of them running into each other at random a _second time_ . . . Zoro’s not very good at math, but he can tell it’s not too high.

 

He’s still so in shock he barely has time to reply. “Luffy,” he gets out eventually, convoluted and stiff.  
  
Luffy outright fucking _giggles_ and if somebody were to ask Zoro why his face flares up in a blush, he’d blame it on the fact that’s still wearing a neon yellow shirt. He suddenly remembers the dirt smear across his eyebrow and licks his thumb to rub it away with. “What are you doing here?” he questions in a much different tone than he’d asked Sanji earlier.

  
  
“Look!” Luffy offers ups his arm by way of answer. Just under the inside of his elbow is a jolly roger almost identical to Usopp’s. “I’m so excited, my brother has a lot of tattoos, so I wanted one too! Isn’t it cool?!”

 

Zoro mentally kicks himself for every bad thing he said or thought about tattoos. “It’s great,” he swallows. Why is this happening to him? It's because it’s Friday the 13th, isn’t it? Zoro’s always had pretty decent luck, or so he thought, he always wins at the slot machines. All that luck’s running out. Fucking karma.

 

“You’re getting one right?” Luffy asks, excited, searching all over Zoro’s body as if he can pick out the imaginary tattoo. He’s never hated his construction uniform more than he does in this moment. He thinks he’ll burn it when he gets home.

 

“Uh - “ Zoro hesitates, but Luffy looks at him expectantly and he can’t stop thinking about the _boring_ thing. “Yeah. Thinking about it.”

  
“Rad!” Luffy cries, pumping his fist in the air. “I want to stay and see it but -”

“ That’s not necessary -”

 

“ - Ace is already on his way, so,” Luffy exhales in frustration, blowing a piece of his hair out of his eyes. It falls right back into place and Zoro’s hand twitches for unexplainable reasons. “Is Sanji here?”

 

“He’s in the chair right now,” Zoro answers, and realizes his mistake. What if Luffy dashes in there at top speed and starts spouting all kinds of information? Not that any of it’s a secret, persay, but he can just picture the smirk on Sanji’s face now. _Oh, so you hopped a fence together? Must be soulmates!_

 

Luffy takes a step towards the door like he’s going to head inside the shop after all; but changes his mind and steps back, cupping his hands over his eyes as makeshift binoculars. The whole process took maybe three seconds, but that was plenty of time for Zoro’s entire life to flash before his eyes.

 

Luffy doesn’t even notice, still trying to see inside. “Ooh, who’s doing it?”

  
“Uh, knuckle tattoos,” Zoro recites. “Weird hat.”

 

“That’s Law!” Luffy says, dropping his hands to his side and bouncing on the balls of his feet. “He’s really good! He did mine for free.” He presents his arm again; Zoro doesn’t know anything about tattoos so he can't say much regarding the quality. “He had to, though, otherwise Ace would be mad.” Luffy drops his volume into a conspiratorial whisper and leans towards him. “I snuck the twenty into his boot anyway. Don’t tell Ace.”

“I won’t,” Zoro promises. There hasn’t been a whole lot of time since their last encounter, but he’s almost angry with himself that he’s already forgotten how - well, there’s not really a word to describe Luffy. Eccentric doesn’t cut it, and strange is pretty accurate but not _enough_. Zoro can’t believe he feels the fondness that he does and suddenly he’s terrified.

 

He doesn’t get the time to lament on it, long, thank God, because a rather oddly-colored car - a neon orange that’s harsh on the eyes - pulls up next to the sidewalk and honks. Luffy rolls his eyes and stick his tongue out at the driver, a young, freckled man who has a least a few years on Zoro. He’s wearing a grin that resembles the same face-splitting ones Luffy has, accompanied by the same dark hair and eyes.

 

He doesn’t seem all that bothered by Luffy’s attitude, laughing heartily, in a real jolly old man sort of way. He sticks an arm out his car window in a wave. “Luffy! Oh.” He looks at Zoro, smile growing impossibly larger. “You must be him!”

 

“ _Ace_ ,” Luffy hisses in a tone Zoro’s never heard him use. It almost sounds _embarrassed_. Zoro can hardly believe his eyes when sees a faint pink rising on Luffy’s cheekbones. Oh? Zoro opens his mouth to introduce himself but Luffy’s about-facing to him in an instant, setting his jaw and sticking his chin up haughtily like he’s trying to overcome the blush Zoro can see on his face. “I have to go now!”

 

“Hold on -”There’s a lot more that Zoro wants to say, he realizes too late when Luffy jolts off in the opposite direction, running to the passenger side of Ace’s car and climbing in before Zoro can even a syllable in edgewise. He stands there for a moment, stunned at the brief, sudden encounter. It was so fast (but somehow so eventful). The whole minute and a half feels like a damn dream, and not in the bucket list fulfilled sort of way.

 

The car tears out of the parking lot with squealing tires and Zoro wanders back inside in a daze, convinced that Sanji’s lacing his cigarettes with something else, and all the second-hand smoke is finally catching up to him. He’s only shaken from the strangely familiar feeling warm in his sternum. Its an _old_ feeling though, like it’s something he hasn’t experienced in a while.

  
He really, really, _really_ doesn’t want to hear Sanji’s snooty voice when he finds out Zoro and Luffy have run into each other _again_ \- because Zoro can’t emphasize the strangeness of the encounter without backing up the time before. Besides, they just got over giving each other the silent treatment over the (however unspoken) matter anyway. But he wants to solidify it somehow. He has to be 100% sure he’s not completely crazy after all.

 

In the end, his thoughts are interrupted by Sanji screaming.

 

~X~

“Come on, you’re shitting me right,” Sanji squints at the freshly done tattoo on his wrist, skin still swollen and raw more than Zoro thinks it should be for a tattoo that small. “It’s really not _that_ bad.”

 

The tattoo is barely the size of a quarter in total, the head of the fish skeleton kind of squished together, transforming it into a swordfish in particular. Which is Zoro’s favourite kind for obvious reasons, so he’s not technically lying when he says, “It could be worse.”

 

“It’ll look totally different when it heals,” Usopp waves off. “I have several tattoos myself, so I know how these things work.”

 

“You have three,” Zoro observes.

 

“I said several!” Usopp defends adamantly, any fear he had of Zoro completely vanished somehow in this moment. Zoro almost wishes for it back but really, it’s a good trade off to get Sanji to stop giving him dirty looks. (Which, really, he’s going to do _anyway but_ lessening them, however temporarily, is nice).  “Several is more than a couple, a couple is two. So, hah!”

 

Usopp reminds Zoro of Luffy in a lot of ways, which just makes him start suspecting things all over again. There’s an art gallery incident he feel like he should remember more of, conversation wise, but Sanji and Usopp convinced him to hit the bar and now  that he’s several (more than three) shots in, he’s getting fuzzy. Damn, when he’d become such a lightweight?

  
Really, though, he shouldn’t think about people like Luffy when he’s been drinking - too much sunshine in a person, which makes his head hurt, and the alcohol makes him think that it doesn’t matter how or why these chance meetings keep occurring because somebody like Luffy is too good for Zoro anyway.

 

“What are you staring off in the distance for?” Usopp asks suddenly (of all the people to notice Zoro’s vacant stare).

 

“I was thinking,” Zoro answers.

  
  
“You see, when Zoro thinks,” Sanji says to Usopp, tapping a finger against the latter’s temple. “All those dusty gears have to start turning, so the process is exercuiagintly slow.”

 

“Shut the fuck up,” Zoro replies, two seconds too late, because it incites a loud cackle from Usopp, whose face is as pink as Sanji’s if not more. Zoro should lay off himself. How is he going to keep an eye on these two?

 

“What were you thinking about - oh, sorry. _Who_ were you thinking about?” Sanji asks suggestively, raising one of those stupid curly brows. Usopp suddenly looks very interested in the conversation, wearing a smirk like he knows something Zoro doesn’t. That kind of pisses him off, but he has to answer Sanji in some roundabout way or all his secrets are out, so he ignores it for now.

 

“Nobody you know,” he lies, forfeiting his designated driver duties entirely (he’ll call a cab for them later) to take a large gulp of his beer.

 

“But what about this person?” Usopp leans towards Zoro, hiccuping, as Sanji coos at the confirmation in the background. Both of their eyes are starting to get all unfocused from drinking and Zoro’s fixing to cut them off pretty soon.

 

“Mind your own damn business,” Zoro attempts but the beer in his hand is yelling at him to start mouthing off. “Nothing big, it’s nothing, I barely know the guy.” Too much information already, damn.

 

“How’d you meet?” Usopp asks and Zoro’s already regretting every decision he’s ever made in his life to get him to this point, in this moment. Sanji’s watching intently, and by the flash in his eyes Zoro knows it’s too late. Damn, he was doing so good.

  
Zoro’s pride is at stake, however, so he’s not going to pass up the complete confirmation just yet, he can’t give Sanji that satisfaction. He’ll just dance around names and specific dates. “Internet.” Too specific, he’s so fucking bad at this.

 

“But have you met in person?” Usopp presses, far too invested for his own good.

 

“Few times,” Zoro says honestly this time, much to Sanji’s surprise, as he switches from squinting at Zoro to widening his eyes.

 

“Whoa, and you haven’t told me?” He asks suddenly, leaning into Usopp’s personal space to get closer to Zoro. “What else have you been holding out?””

 

“You’ve been drinking too much,” Zoro cuts off suddenly, clunkily veering the conversation away before Sanji starts throwing _names_ out there, taking Usopp’s beer from his hand and setting it far down the bar. Usopp reaches for it in a rather childish manner, pouting when Zoro pushes him away. “I have work in the morning, I’m heading out.”

 

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this one,” Sanji scolds when Zoro gets to his feet. “How dare you reject my superb matchmaking skills to go rendezvous with somebody I don’t even know about.”

 

“Matchmaking?” Usopp asks with a laugh.

 

“I tried setting him up with -” Sanji starts, then hesitates, looking from Usopp to Zoro. He seems to metaphorically fold his cards on the table, setting his drink down and lacing his fingers. “Alright, do I have a story for you.”

 

“I’m not listening,” Zoro walks away from the bar; at this point, he doesn’t care if Usopp knows the whole online dating schpiel, he’s not concerned with Usopp’s reaction to any of it. He just wants Sanji to keep believing that his meddling isn’t working, to keep dartbrow out of his business. That’s his goal in keeping all of his and Luffy’s chance encounters under wraps. Fucking Sanji, always ruins everything.

 

“Make sure you guys call a cab, I don’t want to answer a phone call in the middle of the night about you dying,” Zoro interrupts Sanji mid-sentence to say as he puts his portion of the bill in cash on the counter.

 

“Don’t flatter yourself, you’re not my emergency contact,” Sanji waves off, continuing his story about how Zoro was dragged to a shitty emo concert by Perona.

 

Zoro ducks out before he can hear another rendition of his pathetic life, and realizes halfway into a google search that he doesn’t actually have the money for something as expensive as a cab. He checks his wallet and finds he has just enough cash to get him a bus ride home, but they always get him lost, so that will take an extra hour. He weighs the options of spending what little he has left before payday to get home just a little bit earlier.

  
Deciding he’d rather not starve later on in the week, he elects the bus. Public transportation and Zoro don't mix, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and he’s feeling particularly desperate crammed between two people on a seat a size too small for the width of his shoulders. He curses Sanji and Usopp for a) drinking in the first place, when one of them could have been designated driver, but also b) driving him away with their senseless drivel. Gotten drunk enough, and he would have called a cab anyway.

  
Really, he just hates the bus because it’s more time to sit and stares into the distance and think about things he’d rather not think about.

 

Not mentioning Luffy by name has more to do with him not wanting to handle his own feelings than anything else, he realizes. He can use Sanj as a guise all he wants, and although he’d freely admit that really is part of the whole situation, it’s not the whole truth. It has more to do with nightmares and dead highschool sweethearts, and Sanji _knows_ all that. Zoro doesn’t want to think that’s what’s driving his pushiness in the first place, because if it gets brought up, it’ll just be a fresh wound all over again. Three years is enough time to scab but not to scar.  
  
Then again, Sanji’s not really that _aware_ , and Zoro thinks he’s rather brilliant at hiding his own emotions, so maybe it's not that all. Knowing Sanji, it probably is him just wanting to share his weird hippie love, what with Nami full swing into his life. Sanji’s met all kinds of people since here, and he always gets weird when he starts hanging out with new crowds. This one’s better than past one’s, surely, at least they’re not all party kids.

 

But thinking about Sanji is him putting off working his own feelings out - it’s not that he really wants to think about that guy anyway. But he doesn’t really want to think about Luffy either, as weirdly warm as his smile makes him feel.

 

That thought is accompanied by a fresh sense of _guilt_ , and it’s pathetic, and cliche, and emo, but it’s as honest as he’s willing to get with himself. It’s not that Zoro won’t mention Luffy by name because he wants to hide him from Sanji, or Usopp, or anyone else.

 

Zoro’s not hiding Luffy from anyone but himself.

 

Perona and Tashigi weren’t _that bad_ , and they could have gone somewhere. Tashigi looked too familiar and Perona  was bossy in the same way, and always seeing _her_ in people is what’s gotten him into this mess. Luffy’s not any different, but he surprises himself when he realizes that he's separated him from her.

 

His head hurts already, and reminds himself that Luffy is a _fluke_ and probably doesn’t mean anything after all. Zoro’s just going in circles with himself at that, digging himself back into his denial grave, but it leaves him content for now, and that’s all that matters.

  
The bus does get him lost, and it takes him _two_ extra hours to get home, but when he does he finds himself resting a little easier that night.

 

~X~

Zoro’s been spending far too much time with Sanji lately; he’s on his third coffee of the day and he doesn’t even drink that shit if Sanji isn’t around. But Mr. Vinsmoke over there can’t go more than a few days without somehow finding a way to shove himself up Zoro’s ass (not literally, of course, not in Sanji’s best dreams). Zoro thinks he’s a little too co-dependent for his own good.

 

He’s not even paying attention to Zoro now, sitting across from at their Starbucks; he’s too busy ogling his phone screen. When Zoro sneaks a peek at it, all he sees are endless amounts of emojis from Sanji’s end, a variety of hearts and exclamation points and stars.

 

“Don’t sext in front of me,” Zoro says over the lid of his coffee shop.

 

Sanji slams his phone upside down on the table guiltily. “As if, I would never give you such a show!” His eyebrow twitches though and Zoro knows that he’s a fucking liar, but that’s one topic he does not feel like pressing for more information for. “I’ll have you know that I was asking dear sweet Nami if she’d be okay with you third-wheeling for our movie date.”

 

“You haven’t even asked _me_ if I’m okay with that,” Zoro snaps. “Why the hell would I want to do that?”

 

Sanji gives him another one of those sly grins he’d been giving him since the bar incident. Zoro really shouldn’t have said everything he did, because as much of an idiot as Sanji can be, he’s basically Cupid incarnate and can always put the pieces together on these matters. Either that, or Usopp said something to him, but Zoro can’t possibly think what that could be. Whatever it is, Sanji’s answer to Zoro’s question has nothing to do with it. “Popcorn is the perfect cure for your constant hangover.”

 

“Fuck off,” Zoro says, because for starters, _McDonald’s_ is the perfect hangover food, and on top of that he’s immune to hangovers now. “That’s not a good enough reason,” he says anyway.

 

“You’ve been mopey for the past fucking _month_ , I’m trying my best as your friend, okay,” Sanji rolls his eyes.

 

“You don’t do anything without an ulterior motive,” Zoro points out.

  
Sanji stares at him, then slumps his shoulders. “Alright, to tell you the truth, I can’t keep up with her.”

 

“With who-”

 

“With _Nami_! I love her, I love her so much, she’s beautiful, and smart, and funny and -”

  
“Get to the point,” Zoro interrupts impatiently.

 

“Perfect in every way,” Sanji makes it a point to finish his statement. “But she -” he looks around and lowers his voice. “She has so much energy. Like. Sexual energy.”

 

“Okay, no, I don’t need to hear this -”

 

“She never _stops_ , not that I want her to obviously,” Sanji puts a hand over his heart. “I am blessed and honored to the be one who has the _privilege_ of being her lover, but even a stud like me needs a break every now and again! A nap. I sound so ungrateful, I should be ashamed.”

 

“Yeah, you should be,” Zoro agrees to the last part, but thinks it should be for many, many other reasons. “What, so you want me to third wheel so she doesn’t try to ride your dick in the theatre?”

  
“Yes!” Sanji agrees vehemently.

 

“No.”

 

“Oh, come on,” Sanji folds his arms. “If you do this, I’ll owe you one. I know you love having me be in debt to you, it’s like a kink of yours.”

 

“Why are you always hitting on me,” Zoro hisses. Sanji has a point, though, and Zoro’s studio apartment really needs to be cleaned. He could either get the stupid cook to do that, or he could save the favour for a later date. He’ll have to decide on that, but having the golden ticket is enough for him to agree. “Fine, but it better be a damn good fucking movie.”

 

“It won’t be,” Sanji promises.

  
~X~

 

Zoro wonders later on why he didn’t ask Sanji for a time or anything before he agreed, because the man ditches him not ten minutes after the fact to go get ready. Really, if Sanji’s going to make him third wheel, the least he can do is offer him a ride.

 

Sanji told him via text the movie started at seven, so he leaves the house thirty minutes early to get there in time for previews. Of course, the city moved their streets around again, so it actually takes him 45 minutes off coming off a side-street that happened to contact to the shopping plaza with the theatre by sheer luck. He really should move out of this place, it’s always getting him lost.

 

Why did he even agree to this again, he asks himself as he walks up to the entrance. Sanji and Nami are actually waiting for him outside, hanging all over each other in a manner that really shouldn’t be done in public, Nami stretching up on her toes to kiss Sanji all over his face. The look on her face isn’t even that affectionate as it is sneaky, and Zoro thinks he’ll tell Sanji to check his pockets later.

 

“Get a room,” Zoro says by way of greeting. Nami keeps hanging off Sanji’s shoulder as she smiles at Zoro, Sanji himself holding her against his side by her waist. Fucking gross.

  
“You’re late!” Sanji accuses. “It’s only ten minutes away, how lost did you get?!”

“I didn’t get lost!” Zoro defends. “There was a construction zone detour or something.”

“There’s no construction zones around here,” Sanji argues.

 

Nami laughs and pats Sanji’s cheek to quiet him, who instantly starts drooling all over himself like a dog at the touch. God, this was a mistake. “That’s why we told you the movie starts at seven.”

 

“What, it doesn’t?”

  
“It starts at eight!” Nami checks her watch, with a rather fancy diamond-studded face. Zoro can tell in a heartbeat it was a gift from Sanji. Spoiling her already? That’s why he’s so broke all the time. Maybe the real reason he invited him was so Zoro could pay for the movie ticket for him. Nami proves this theory wrong when he says, “Go ahead and get your ticket Zoro, we’ll wait inside.”

 

“Ask me out on a date, then make me pay for it,” Zoro mutters but is ignored by both of them as they head towards the lobby, leaving him by the box office. At least the line isn’t that long. He realizes when he gets near the front that he has no idea what the name of the movie even is. He thinks himself very clever when he figures that he can just look for the movie with an eight o'clock showing.

 

He’s so busy squinting at the screen, regretting leaving his glasses in the car, that he doesn’t realize it’s his turn. “ _Hello_ , mister, are you going to buy a ticket or not!” The cashier calls to him from behind the glass plated box office.

 

He keeps his eyes on the screen as he walks up to the movie, zeroing in on the one movie that starts at eight. “One adult for -” he starts to say, turning to the cashier.

 

Fuck. Fuck, that’s it, there’s some kind of cosmic deity working against him, there’s no way this is all happening by pure _chance_ and randomness, the city they live in isn’t _that_ small. There’s something bringing Luffy to him, because how else do you explain how he’s standing in front of him, for the third time on meetings that weren’t planned.

 

“Zoro!” Luffy says with so much excitement he nearly presses his nose against the glass dividing them as he leans towards it. He’s laughing so hard his shoulders shake and Zoro hates himself for realizing how _cute_ it is. “Are you following me? You know, if you liked me so much you could have just said so!”

  
“What, I - no, it’s not like that,” Zoro denies. He didn’t plan this, he swears, he has no idea how this keeps happening to them. He had known Luffy worked at a movie theatre from their aquarium date, when it was mentioned in passing conversation, but there’s so _many_ in the city that he never even entertained the idea of ever ending up at this one in particular. He’s so hung up on this aspect, that he misses the last part of what Luffy said entirely until it’s too late to react to it.

 

“It’s not,” Luffy repeats, suddenly slumping his shoulders. “Oh you’re probably here with a date, aren’t you? I didn’t think about that.”

 

“No, _no_ , Sanji’s not my _date_ , not in this universe, not in _any_ universe.” Zoro feels nauseous at the idea, but that might also be the entire situation at hand. _Why does he sound so disappointed?_

 

Luffy perks up at that, smiling in that signature way of his and doing his weird whispered laugh. “When Sanji messaged me, the way he made you sound, I totally thought you were dating!”

 

“What’d he say about me?” Zoro wonders out loud. “Wait, he’s the one who set us up, why would you think that.”

 

Luffy shrugs, “I’ve been in polyamorous relationships before.”

 

Zoro’s stunned. Because, A) he can’t believe Luffy mixes up words like _venomous_ and _vengeance_  but can say something like _polyamorous_ like it’s an elementary school vocabulary word, but also B) because _!!!!!???? He’s what?!_ Just when he thinks his interest in Luffy is minor and could be easily ignored, he throws out another enigma that reels Zoro back in.

 

Zoro doesn’t know what to say to that, but it turns out he doesn’t have to, because Luffy looks over his shoulder and cringes. “They’re starting to get mad. You’re seeing the movie with Sanji and Nami right?” Luffy prints a ticket before Zoro can a word in edgewise. “Here you go! Don’t worry about paying, it’s on me.”

 

“You can’t do that -” Zoro starts but Luffy hushes him.

  
“You’re holding up my line, Zoro!” Luffy snickers and Zoro steps out of the way automatically to let the next person up to the window. He stands there for a few moments, watching Luffy grin at every customer that walks up, even when they seem rude and irritating. He wonders, not for the first time, how Luffy’s cheeks aren’t _sore_ from all that smiling. He looks cuter in the bright red uniform of the theatre than should be appropriate, and what’s when Zoro realises he’s being a little creepy and ducks inside.

  
Sanji and Nami are just coming out of the concession line, Sanji holding a bucket of popcorn the size of Zoro’s damn head. “Sorry, did you want anything?” he asks sarcastically when he sees Zoro standing there.

 

This time around, Zoro sacrifices all of his pride and hesitant moments. “I didn’t know Luffy worked here.”

  
Sanji starts, then feigns indifference. “Oh, yeah, that’s why we picked this theatre, right Nami?”

 

“Free movie tickets,” she says in confirmation, then eyes Zoro. “Why do you ask like that?”

“Like what, there’s no special way,” Zoro brushes off quickly before stealing a handful of popcorn from Sanji’s bucket to distract them from the moment.

  
“Get your filthy hands off Nami’s popcorn!” Sanji yells, turning away; he looks ready to swing a fist at Zoro, but can’t with his hands still gripped tight around the bucket. Zoro stares him right in the as he shoves the popcorn in his mouth.

 

Nami giggles and pats Sanji’s cheek again to calm him down before hooking her arm through his to lead him to the theatre. “So, Zoro,” she begins on the way there, side-eyeing him. He chews through his popcorn slowly and glances back. “Sanji’s always telling me how you’re always looking for someone, and keep having such horrible luck.”

 

“I never said that,” Zoro says, swallowing, and shooting Sanji daggers with his eyes.

 

“Well, anyway,” Nami ignores. “I have a really good friend, her name is Vivi, and I think you guys would get along _great_. I can show you a picture, she’s really gorgeous.”

 

“I’m not interested,” Zoro says the moment he can get a word edgewise. He’s not going for that again, no more being set up or blind dates or internet chatting, he’s over all of it. Nami’s right in that it keeps going horribly, horribly wrong. Even Luffy went wrong, in a completely different way from the rest of them.

 

“Oh, but you’d balance each other so well, right Sanji?”

  
“Yes dear~,” Sanji answers, grin face-splitting and larger than anything Luffy himself could ever pull off. It doesn’t even look Nami-related this time, it’s more akin to that slick, knowing one he’s been giving Zoro all damn day.

 

“What’s holding you back, Zoro?” Nami questions with a head tilt that’s probably supposed to be cute. “Unless, of course, you’ve already met someone . . .”

 

“You know, you two are perfect for each other,” Zoro says, sharp, suddenly furious. He knows Nami said it like that because _of course_ Sanji told her about the bar incident. While he thought earlier he didn’t care if anyone _knows_ about that part, he does when it leads to them sticking their nose in his shit. “Neither of you can mind your own business. Stop getting your girlfriend to meddle into my life, shitty cook, it’s getting fucking old.”

 

“Oi, I didn’t say anything,” Sanji retaliates, ready to pour the bucket of popcorn over Zoro’s head should they have to stick close for a second longer. “Don’t talk to Nami like that, either!”

 

“Come on, guys,” Nami giggles like she’s getting _off_ on inciting a fight between the two of them. “This is our theatre.”

 

Looking back on it, Zoro really wishes it hadn’t been their theatre. He ends up taking the seat behind theirs because he’s not about to sit next to a couple who can’t keep it in their pants for more than two seconds at a time. Even though Sanji basically asked him to be cockblock, he knew it was futile from the start.

 

And he was right - they’re not even halfway through the movie (a rehashed action thriller with the same five actors you see in every single one of these movies; not that Zoro dislikes action movies, in fact they’re amongst his favourite, but there’s only so many times you can see a white man play an exiled spy trying to stop an evil government plot before it gets old) before Nami all but gives up on paying attention and starts roaming her hands all over Sanji.

 

Zoro couldn’t bear to watch for even three seconds the moment her hand ventures to Sanji’s thigh and he’s out of the theatre before he can even blink twice. Girl has no shame.

 

Going in, he knew the whole night would be a _mistake_ , it always is with Sanji, but he has to give curly-brow props for recognizing that if Zoro stays home by himself too long he starts getting all - emo. Really, if he thinks about too much, he realizes Sanji’s the only person he’d dare to call _friend_ , as nauseating as that is.

 

He supposes Usopp’s growing on him if he was really hard pressed, and Nami is just an extension of Sanji so he could technically count her too. And then there’s always Luffy.

 

Damn. He needs a cigarette. This is all Sanji’s fault, his bad lifestyle is starting to rub off on Zoro.

 

He stands outside the lobby entrance to light the one from the entire pack he stole from Sanji some two weeks ago, and thinks he’ll finally muster up the courage to quit completely (not that he’s a _smoker_ of course, it’s only socially, he’d never buy himself a pack . . . but still). He’s not really all that addicted, he’s just been having a very stressful few months. Years. Life.

 

He’s still reflecting on the shitty year he’s had when somebody else steps out of the lobby, head down and texting furiously on a phone screen with the brightness all the way up. Even from the corner of his eye, it gives Zoro a headache - the headache blooms into a migraine the moment the other person looks up.

  
  
Zoro chucks the half of a cigarette he has left across the Goddamn parking lot. “Luffy?”

 

Zoro can’t say he’s even surprised anymore, he’s grown numb to these chance encounters. Of course, this time it makes more sense than all the others before. Which, all those still deserve a rational explanation of some sort.

 

“Zoro!” Luffy breaks out into a huge smile upon seeing Zoro, practically bouncing over to him to throw his arm around Zoro’s shoulders. The latter is suddenly keenly aware of the cigarette smoke sticking to the fabric of his clothes and feels a sharp sense of embarrassment.

  
Luffy, on the other hand, smells entirely of popcorn, enough to be overwhelming. He’s warm when Zoro hugs him back. “Haha, what are you doing out here, is the movie over already?” he asks, pulling away.

Zoro doesn’t know what to do with his hands and wipes them on jeans, awkwardly. “It was a bad movie,” Zoro offers by way of answering. “Are you off?”

 

“Yup!” Luffy takes the visor perched on his head off, and runs a hand through his hair, making it stick up in every direction. It’s so cute. Zoro hates himself. “I’m just waiting for Ace to pick me up!”

 

Zoro doesn’t really have a reply to that, and racks his brain for a way to ask why Luffy doesn’t drive without it sounding rude. In the end he’s distracted by Luffy scratching at his arm and wincing. “How’s the tattoo healing?” he asks, changing the subject.

  
“It’s _itchy_ ,” Luffy complains loudly. “Traf was all,” he narrows his eyes and deepens his voice for comedic effect, “‘Don’t scratch, Luffy, you’ll pull the ink, blah, blah, blah’. I don't even know what that means!” He squints at Zoro. “You lied, cause you didn’t get one after all, did you!”

 

Zoro can’t believe himself when he flushes at that, like he’s been caught red-handed. “I said I would think about it, jeesh,” he says defensively.

 

“Boring Zoro,” Luffy accuses again, sticking his tongue out. Zoro wishes he wouldn’t do that for gay reasons. “You’re missing the movie,” he reminds him in the following silence.

 

“I’m not missing much, trust me,” Zoro snorts, when something dawns on him. “Oh, unless - if I was bugging you, I’ll just go back -”

 

“No!” Luffy interrupts quickly, reaching a hand out that _almost_ touches Zoro’s arm to stop him. “No, it’s okay, I don’t mind! I’d be really bored without you here, anyway.”

 

“Thought you said _I_ was boring.” Zoro raises an eyebrow.

 

“Not as boring as being by myself,” Luffy says with a smile. “You’re not really, I just like getting your sheep.”

 

“My what.”

 

Luffy exhales loudly and wanders to a nearby bench settled awkwardly between the theatre entrance and an oddly placed make-shift garden set-up. It looks like the shopping centre designers were trying to bring something other than concrete to the table and just ended up with a bunch of weeds and rather scraggly, pathetic plants that were probably once supposed to be trees. Zoro wonders if the space Luffy leaves next to him is an invitation to join, as he sets on the far left side, feet kicking back and forth off the edge.

 

He’s halfway there when Luffy speaks up, “Zoro, can I ask you something?”

Oh no. Uh oh. Zoro feels the weird urge to just run back inside, but he’s not so blatantly a coward. “Sure.” Hopefully that was the right answer. There’s another stretch of silence in which all Zoro hears is cicadas and cars speeding by on the nearby main road, going at least ten miles over the speed limit with tires squealing.

 

He mentally prepares himself for a lot of things, but, “Why haven’t you asked me for my number yet?” wasn’t one of them.

 

And so, he answers with a blank stare.

 

Luffy stares back. ”So are you gonna ask me or what?”

  
  
“What.” Shit, wait, he didn’t mean it like that. Zoro feels like he’s missed something during all of this, and suddenly thinks back to that tattoo parlor incident with his first run-in with Ace, in which Ace implied very much so that Zoro’s a person who’s been mentioned by Luffy at least once. Maybe that meant more than he gave thought to. In his being wrapped up in himself, rather self-centered, he never actually entertained the idea that Luffy would be interested in him, too.

 

It’s - new. But Zoro finds it’s not all that unpleasant to consider.

 

Luffy kicks the ground, not meeting Zoro’s eyes. “Why are you so heinous - wait, no, that's not the word.” He squints thoughtfully into the distance. “Hesitant! That's the word.”

 

“About what?” Zoro asks dumbly.

 

“Me! We keep running into each other, so that’s something right? We’re like magnets.” The way he’s talking reminds Zoro of Sanji - all he’s missing is the word _destiny_ but he’s saying it in a very Luffy-way. The feeling of _destiny_ sounds very grandiose, and even miscalculated, but Zoro supposes Luffy is both of those things.

  
Zoro doesn’t believe in _destiny_ or _fate_ or anything ridiculous like that and knows somewhere strings are being pulled by a puppeteer he can’t see, but he does believe in karma. Maybe Luffy’s been his karma this whole time. What a thought. Really, he just can’t seem the process the concept of Luffy having any actual interest or affection for him, no matter how hard he tries to focus on it. Whilst he’s already decided it wouldn’t be a bad thing, whether or not it’s a _true_ thing is still up for grabs. In a way, he thinks it’s a hope he doesn’t want to hold out for. But that’s ridiculous.

 

“I guess.”

  
“You’re not very bright, Zoro,” Luffy snickers, then pulls one of those mega-sized sharpies out of his pocket casually, like it’s completely normal to just carry one of those around. “Come here!

  
Zoro thinks of _magnets_ and karma and steps forward; he does nothing as Luffy reaches out and takes his arm this time, angry at himself for the way his skin tingles where Luffy touches him. “Oi, what are you doing -” he has enough coherency to argue as Luffy uncaps the sharpie with his teeth and writes in large, messy handwriting all down Zoro’s arm.

 

Zoro pulls away to try to decipher it, and realizes it’s Luffy’s phone number.  
  
“You didn’t have to do that,” Zoro argues, licking his thumb to scrub at the Sharpie marks. Luffy looks confused until Zoro pulls his cell phone out of his pocket. “You could have just put it in my phone.”

 

“Oh,” Luffy laughs. “Oops! Well, you have a tattoo now anyway!” He sounds very proud of himself over his Sharpie design.

 

Then, Luffy’s own phone chimes with a familiar tune Zoro’s pretty sure is from a video game he played all of once; Luffy glances at the screen. “Oh, Ace is here! I have to go.” He stands up, looks Zoro over for a moment, and suddenly bounds over.

 

Luffy reaches up and winds his arms around Zoro’s shoulders, embracing him so tightly that Zoro holds his breath in automatic reaction more than anything. _Oh._ Just when he think’s he's mustered up the strength and the courage to hug Luffy back - just tentatively, around the waist - the latter pulls away and flashes Zoro one of his signature grins, like nothing’s different.

 

“Text me, okay? Stop being weird,” Luffy waves off as he starts jogging away.

 

“I’m not weird, you’re weird.”

 

“I get that a lot,” Luffy calls after and Zoro stays just long enough to watch him get in Ace’s same neon orange car.

Later, after another grilling from Sanji in which he’s asked where he went (“Not that I’m opposed to movie theatre handjobs, but you had one job!” “Please don’t ever say that to me again.”), Zoro stands in the shower for an extra thirty minutes. No matter how hard he scrubs his arm, he can’t get the Sharpie to come out.

 

(He dreams of her again, but it hurts a little less this time).

 

~X~

 

Zoro stares at his blank message screen and realizes he has no idea how to spell Luffy’s name.

 

He never actually got a good look at his dating site profile, and they’ve never been in a situation where it’s come up - he supposes Luffy probably had a nametag at the movies, but Zoro has a very selective memory. He regrets every decision he’s ever made that led him to this one embarrassing moment. Luffy’s name is pronounced with the double o sound, but doubts a parent hates their child enough to spell his name like that. What if it has one of those funny accent marks over one of the vowels? Zoro’s not entirely sure what those even indicate.

  
He’s not about to ask Sanji because he’s still stuck in Pride Mode. Plus, he’s too busy trying to figure out what it is his stomach is doing when he thinks about Luffy to throw all kinds of Sanji Shenanigans into the mix.

He’s always been terrible at texting anyways. He should just forget about this entire endeavour, and leave everything up to the fates again - at this rate, he’s bound to run into Luffy again in no time. There’s no need to text him. He could call him. No, that’s even worse, what is he thinking?

 

He could just say who it is, because Luffy will reply anyway - unless he gave him a fake number, but Zoro doubts he’s willing to waste half of his Sharpie ink just to give it to Zoro. He looks at his arm now and finds that it’s only barely faded. Is that an 8, or just a smudged 3?

 

Why is even so inclined to text him anyways? What happened to not being _interested_ and not _caring_. Zoro thinks back to the movie theatre hugs and realizes all hope is gone for him when it comes to Luffy.

 

The voice in his head that says _Don’t be a pussy_ sounds too much like Sanji to ignore.

 

Zoro feels like he’s barely pressed sent on the rather pathetic message that says _hey, it’s zoro_ , when his phone is vibrating with a reply:

 

>> **ZORO!!!!!**

>> **IM GLAD U TEXTED IM BORED LETS DO SMTH** **  
** << _like what?_

>> **IT’D BE A SURPRISE I NEED A RIDE THO LOL**

 

That’s rather funny logic, and Zoro can’t help but smile. He doesn’t even get time to decide on wether or he should do that, before Luffy’s texting him an address that he assumes is his.

 

<< _right now? Its kinda late_

 _ >> _ **SO????????????**

 

Fair point.

 

It’s very on the whim to get in his car and just _go_ , he isn’t quite sure what even leads him to doing it besides all the emotional inner turmoil he's been having since the second time he even met the guy. He wonders what it is about Luffy that does this to him. It’s strange to think that the old familiar feeling still settled in his chest could be something as high-school as a _crush_.

 

If it wasn’t though, he argues with himself, he wouldn’t be halfway to Luffy’s place before he’s even thought it through.

 

He didn’t really expect anything when he put the address into his GPS, and it only takes him ten extra minutes than Google Maps promised him to actually get there (this time, there was only one moved street instead of the seven he’s used to). Pulling up to a gated community wasn’t one of them - Luffy never quite struck him as the _Stuck in the Suburbs_ type.

 

<< _what’s ur gate code_

 _ >> _ **I HAVE NO IDEA ILL MEET U THERE**

 

Zoro waits another ten minutes and is starting to think he got lost after all when none other than Luffy himself comes jogging up the sidewalk next to the gated entrance. He brightens immediately when he sees Zoro waving to him outside his car window, “Hey, Luffy!”

 

“Zoro!” Luffy makes a quick cut across the street to get into Zoro’s truck with little invitation. Once inside he buckles his seatbelt and beams. “I’m happy to see you!”

 

Zoro was so distracted by Luffy’s smile that he hadn’t even realized he was holding something in his hands. “Why do you have toilet paper?”

 

Luffy looks down at the six-pack package in his hands. “I told you, it was a surprise.” He drops the package to the floor of the truck and whips out his phone. “Go to this address.”

 

“Okay, boss,” Zoro teases. “You’re not just using me to be your chauffeur are you?”

 

“Uh, no,” Luffy laughs. “That’s what I use Ace for, duh.”

 

“You don’t drive?”

 

“Why do I need to do that when all my friends can do it for me,” Luffy points out. He looks down at his phone and points to the left. “Turn here!” Zoro’s mid-turn when Luffy makes a noise of protest, “I said turn left!”

 

“I did -”

 

“You’re turning right!”

 

Zoro grumbles, “This is why you should drive yourself.”

 

“Nah,” Luffy laughs after Zoro finds a place to make a u-turn and goes in (hopefully) the right direction. “Why don’t you have any music on?”

 

“Oh,” Zoro glances at the radio like he’s completely forgotten its existence. “I don’t really listen to the radio. I have CD’s in the glove box.”

 

He’s not too keen on people rifling through his stuff, but figures Luffy wouldn’t really harm anything taking his CD case out. The only harm is Luffy saying, “Haha, Zoro, CD’s are so outdated!”

 

“My truck’s too old for an aux cord.”

 

Luffy’s mouth just drops open at that and he shakes his head before flipping through the CD case. “Wow, I don’t recognize any of this! What’s irritation?”

 

“Iration,” Zoro corrects. “Just pick one.”

Zoro’s hoping for Iration but when Luffy pops a random CD into the car stereo, he’s mortified [when Die Antwoord starts playing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGIbDQpVqX4). There’s a stretch of silence through to the second verse before Luffy suddenly bursts out laughing, putting a hand over his chest. “I love this! You have funny taste in music.”

 

Zoro tries not to let that get to him too much.

 

Luffy records several moments off the album with his phone, “To look up later!” and Zoro is disgustingly giddy that he was able to share something with Luffy, however unprecedented, even if it is something as out-there as Die Antwoord.

 

Luffy ends up directing him to another neighbourhood that’s the polar opposite of where Luffy’s from; it’s a lot closer to Zoro’s atmosphere, actually, and although it doesn’t seem like a _bad_ place, per say, he locks his doors just in case. He’d hate to get jumped on a date. Not that this is a date. Is it? He did spray himself down with cologne and brush his teeth before leaving the house, which is more effort than he’s put into anything involving anyone in a long time.

 

“We’re not crashing a party are we?” Zoro asks when Luffy squints at the map on his phone and then points to the right. Zoro goes left and has to make another u-turn.

 

“Traf doesn’t throw parties,” Luffy rolls his eyes. “We’re not exactly _crashing_ \- oh, that’s it on the right - no, Zoro, the _right_.” Eventually after more three-point turns than necessary, Zoro parks across the street from the house Luffy claims to be this mysterious Traf’s. It’s a pretty run-down place, with one of the front windows struggling to stay together by unsticking duct tape; Zoro imagines all those glass shards collapsing and flinches.

 

When Luffy grins this time, it’s borderline manic and more than a little scary, his eyes wild. He picks up the toilet paper still on the car floor and holds it in his lap, ripping open the package. “Ace and Traf are having a fight,” Luffy explains. “So we gotta TP his house.”

 

“Wait - what, Luffy!” Luffy’s out the car door and dashing across the street faster than Zoro can stop him, who struggles to get out of his seatbelt enough to go after him. He should have expected something like this, this is Luffy we’re talking about.

  
When Zoro meets him across the street, Luffy presses a roll of toilet paper into his hand. “Just throw it all over! Oh, make sure you get his truck - funny, looks kinda like yours,” Luffy points it out in the driveway. They’re only similar in color, but the make and model are completely different. Zoro drives a real truck, this is more of a wannabe, baby one with a short bed.

 

“Luffy -” Zoro tries again as Luffy chucks long strings and strings of the two-ply stuff all over the mangled tree in Traf’s front yard, laughing loud enough that Zoro glances around to make sure nobody comes out of their houses to tell him to shut up. It’s dark enough, with sparse streetlights, that they could just dip, hiding in the shadows, without really getting caught. Still, though. “Somebody’s going to call the police.”

 

“Don’t be boring,” Luffy criticizes when Zoro just stands there, staring aimlessly as Luffy runs out of an entire roll, strewn all across the front yard.

  
The words set him in motion, because he’s about not to spend all this time bucking up the courage to willingly spend time with somebody he has (potential!) romantic interest in to be called _boring_ again. “Fine,” he concedes, and is rewarded with Luffy’s laugh as they head over to the truck that in no way resembles Zoro’s.

 

“You could just wrap it up,” Zoro points under the truck. “Like a mummy. It’d take more time to get off.” It could also probably start a fire in the undercarriage but Luffy makes him feel reckless.

 

“That’d be so funny!” Luffy proclaims and then proceeds to crawl under the truck with the roll of toilet paper, popping out the other side to throw the roll over the roof and start the process over. It’s honestly hilarious how quickly he manages to get the entire cab wrapped up, and doesn’t seem to care at all that now he’s covered in dirt and oil stains, including one across his forehead that Zoro’s hand twitches to rub away.

 

Luffy’s laughing so hard he’s doubling over, hand over his chest, and Zoro can’t help but join in; Luffy is as contagious as always in nearly everything he does. “I can’t believe how easy I got you to join me,” Luffy says, wiping a tear from his eye. “You’re the best!”

 

Zoro’s laugh turns into a startled cough at the last part, heart suddenly hammering against his chest. “Thanks.”

 

“Come on, we still have a bunch left!”

 

“What did he even do to deserve this?” Zoro wonders out loud when they’re down to their last roll, Luffy stuffing wads and wads of the stuff into the mailbox.

 

“He pissed Ace off!” Luffy cries. “Traf’s my friend, but he can be a real dick sometimes.” Zoro only kind of wants to hear Luffy say that again, in a vague sense.

 

Just then, without any warning, like a little birdie told him he was being talked about, the door to the house flies open. Standing in the frame is the tattoo artist who gave Sanji that awful fishbone on his wrist - he looks downright _furious_ , even from this distance, and the redness of his face really brings out the dark circles under his eyes. “Lu- _ffy_ ,” he yells immediately, raising a tattooed finger to point it at the duo standing like a deer in headlights in the driveway.

 

In one swift move, Luffy blows a raspberry at Law, throws the last of his toilet paper roll impressively far in order to nearly hit Law in the face (who ducks, last second), before grabbing Zoro’s arm and tugging him back towards the truck. “Come on, let’s get out of here!”

 

“Don’t think you’ll get away with this!” Is the last thing Law calls before the doors to Zoro’s truck are slamming shut.

 

~X~

  
When Zoro gets them lost again, it’s blissfully by a Dairy Queen; Zoro’s not big on dairy and always fucks up his stomach when he decides to indulge in ice cream, but Luffy looks so thrilled at the find that he stops yelling at Zoro to make a U-turn at the nearest light in favor of pointing at it wildly and making incoherent screeching noises.

  
“Aw, man,” Luffy says suddenly after inhaling half of his Blizzard (courtesy of Zoro’s paycheck - Luffy’s a lucky guy). “I should have brought spray paint!”

 

“If you’re really a pirate, you would steal and not vandalize,” Zoro points out.

 

Luffy looks offended, “Pirates only steal at sea, Zoro. Anyways,  let’s go to the Home Depot and -”

 

“Wait, I’m not trying to get arrested,” Zoro interrupts.

 

Luffy pouts but doesn’t push it, giving Zoro a sly look out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t lie, you had fun!”

 

“Never said I didn’t,” Zoro admits subtly. And he did, as fraternity-house-initiation it felt. Besides he has to get rid of the _boring_  stereotype Luffy’s saddled to his back as soon as possible. If he’s going to cave in to - whatever it is _this_ is - he’s gotta at least make up for his lack of effort every other time before. He doesn’t even want to think about the disaster that was the aquarium date.

 

“So,” Luffy pauses, peering into his straw as if wondering how a chocolate chip got so wedged in it. “That means you’ll go out with me again, right?”

 

Zoro's heart thrums heavy in his chest; he puts his Blizzard-free hand over it in an attempt to settle it down. “Was this a date?” The word sticks to the roof of his mouth like peanut butter, but maybe that’s from the ice cream.

 

“Did you want it to be a date? Because I did!” Zoro wasn’t expecting that and isn’t sure how to react, he’s caught off guard now, maybe he went into this too soon. But Luffy’s smile is so wide and confident he can’t really bring himself to say that it wasn’t one.

 

“I’ve never TP’d someone’s house as a date before,” Zoro answers by way of stalling.

 

“There’s a first for everything, isn’t there?” Luffy asks matter-of-factly before inhaling the other half of his Blizzard. He doesn't wait for any kind of confirmation or denial from Zoro on the subject matter, fiddling with his radio again and looking at the time. “Oh, I have a curfew, by the way.”

 

“A curfew, huh?” Zoro repeats, turning the engine all the way on. “Better get you home.”

 

“It would suck if my family hated you before you even met,” Luffy agrees.

 

“Maybe we should go to dinner before we talk about meeting the family,” Zoro replies and suddenly it’s easy, like a switch; he realized ages ago that it was only him and a ghost that held him back but Luffy’s a presence that's overpowering enough to drown all that out. It was always just a matter of accepting it, and he thinks the process is slow - but steady.

 

“Okay. I want to go to Johnny Rockets next time,” Luffy decides for them. That’s not exactly the dinner Zoro had in mind, but Luffy’s a simple man, he can tell.

 

Later, when Zoro drops him off at the gate, Luffy sits in the car for a moment and _stares_ , like he’s waiting for something. His gaze is intense, but open and patient, and it takes several long moments before he relaxes and says, “See you next time, Zoro!”

 

He’s gone before Zoro can figure out what it was all about.

 

~X~

 

Luffy’s, of course, the first to initiate a text conversation, asking Zoro to send him the best of “that funny band you played in the car!”. Technically, Luffy’s the one who played it, but Zoro still finds himself using up his entire lunch break at work pulling up YouTube links to bombard Luffy with. He accidently almost sends one to Sanji who replied to something in the middle of it, and thanks his lucky graces he caught it in time before he sent him _Cookie Thumper_ with no context.

 

Of course, sending that one to even Luffy was probably a bad idea anyway, because it takes him en entire twelve hours to respond. Not that he’s keeping track, but it’s still a little disappointing to wake up on his day off to 0 messages. Which is - ridiculous, again, things keep getting more so by the minute.

 

It’s past noon and Zoro’s on his third bowl of instant ramen before Luffy replies and Zoro is absolutely _ashamed_ at himself for how fast he grabs his phone when he sees Luffy’s name in the preview window.

 

>> **ZORO!!!!!! IM BORED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

<<so?

 

Ah, waiting all day for a reply and this is how he himself responds. He’s so fucking bad at his, maybe he should cave and ask Sanji for advice. His good friend Pride pulls at his ear at the thought.

 

>> **COME OVER :P**

 

Yikes, are they even there yet? Zoro hasn’t been invited over to any crush’s (since, he’s finally accepted that much about whatever it is Luffy is to him) place since _high school._ He hasn’t done a lot of things since high school, he’s realizing, and starts to get all existential crisis about the too-quick passage of time before he remembers the conversation at hand.

 

>> **BRING A SIX PACk**

 

It’s - barely noon - who invites someone over and tells them to bring alcohol anyway? Maybe he’s been misjudging Luffy this entire time. He tries picturing the genuineness of his smile but Zoro’s always been more doubtful than anything, so even that doesn’t do much. Even still, he’s always up for having a beer or even two, he doesn’t mind that - he minds the circumstance. He can’t decide how much.

 

Even Pride is putting his hands up at that one, and he’s halfway through a message to Sanji before he realizes that Sanji’s response would probably be along the lines of _dude!!! Go stick it in lol_ before deleting the entire thing. Prideful or not, he at least has some decency, unlike his friend.

 

Luffy doesn’t give him the _netflix and chill_ vibe, anyway, right? Now that he thinks about it, the only sort physical moves Luffy’s made have been innocent hugs; Zoro’s touched Luffy more than Luffy’s touched him. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t, y’know, _attracted -_ okay, enough.

 

But - he does want to see Luffy again, as strange as the feeling is. He could just go and see how it goes and if Luffy turns out to be nothing like Zoro assumed, then it’d be a hell of a lot easier to destroy this whole _crush_ thing once and for all. He can make this a deciding factor. He really does want to see Luffy again.

 

_Fuck it._

 

_ <<ok on my way _

 

Zoro tries not to think about the trip on his way there and spent too much on his favourite beer brand because if he’s going to drink with Luffy, he’s at least going to get them quality stuff - his thoughts are starting to race, so he turns his radio up louder. One window’s down because, damn, why is it so stuffy in here, and the driver of the car next to his looks over with a frown.

 

He gets to Luffy’s still odd, suburban gated community before remembering the gate code dilemma - he’s about to text Luffy to see if he has a clicker of some sort but a car pulling in behind him seems to have one of their own. THeir honking before the gates even have a chance to open for Zoro to move out of the way and he contemplates flipping them off before thinking that getting into a road-rage-induced fight in Luffy’s neighborhood is probably not very admirable.

 

He has to backtrack through his messages to get the exact number of Luffy’s house from a few nights ago; it takes him another fifteen minutes to locate it around all all the twisty turns and bends before he finds what he hopes is the right one. The driveway is completely empty, but the blinds into the living room are half up, which means someone has to be home right? If it’s just Luffy though - well, maybe he should conveniently leave the beer in the car.

 

He sits in his truck for a moment and thinks about how _easy_ it would be to just turn around and go home and pretend this whole thing never happened, but how else is he going to spend his day off? There’s worse ways than with Luffy, even if the awkwardness surrounding it is eating away at Zoro’s stomach lining. It’s fine. _Man up, Roronoa._

 

It takes a three-tone knock before the door opens, and Zoro flips back and forth between being glad and even more incredibly anxious that it’s Luffy who answers. He’s wearing a very holey beanie low over his ears and Zoro wonders what kind of hat-hair he’d have if he took it off right now.

 

“Zoro! You actually showed up,” Luffy laughs. “It took you so long, did you get lost again?”

 

“Of course not,” Zoro lies, loud and defensive. “I brought you this,” he pushes the six pack into Luffy’s hands, accidently inviting himself over the threshold of the door in the process. Ah, now he’s in Luffy’s house. From the outside, it was pretty normal, matched every other one in the neighbourhood; a two-story, with white walls and blue trim. Inside, the doorway immediately opens up into a living room, a large TV off to the right. There’s all kinds of medals and framed folded flags hung up on the wall, a blue U.S. Navy flag pinned up to the wall above the television. He could have never guessed in 800 years that Luffy was a military kid.

 

Luffy inspects the six pack in his hands. “This isn’t soda.”

 

Oh my God. Holy shit. Zoro fucked up. Of course he meant soda, this is Luffy. “Oh. You said six pack.”

 

“I was hoping you’d bring Mountain Dew,” Luffy sighs. Zoro can’t believe how bad he fucked up already. He really should have stayed home.

 

“That’s okay!” Luffy cries, ushing Zoro inside to he can shut the door. He disappears down a back hallway that seems to open into a kitchen before returning, six pack gone from his hands. Zoro waits for him awkwardly in the hallway, staring at the pictures lining the walls. All he can see in them is a much younger Luffy, somebody who looks vaguely similar (except with freckles) that Zoro assumes is the Ace Luffy’s always talking about, and an older man. There’s also a portrait of the man, wearing a thick mustache, in a naval uniform. Luffy’s dad, then?

 

Luffy catches him staring and corrects Zoro’s unspoken dad, “That’s Gramps, and Ace! Come on.” He tugs on Zoro’s hand to lead him back into the living room; it’s cold from holding the beer. “I’m so glad you came over, I just really wanted somebody to play Mario Kart with. It’s not fun by yourself.”

 

He leads Zoro to the couch and places a Wii remote in his hands before he can protest. Zoro’s pretty sure he’s only ever played Mario Kart in _theory_ , and stares at the unfamiliar controller in his hands. Luffy already has the game set up and quits out of single player to select multy, the animated Mario on the screen giving a very enthusiastic, _Let’s go!_

 

As it loads, Luffy asks, “Whatcha been up to today?”

 

“It’s my day off,” Zoro answers, leaning forward as he continues to inspect the controls of the remote, mimicking the way Luffy holds it. “So not much until you texted me.”

 

“Nothing at all?” Luffy frowns.

 

Zoro thinks back on it; mostly he just watched several episodes of Storage Wars all morning. “I watched some TV.”

 

“Hm, well now you have something to do,” Luffy affirms, pressing the button through all the prompts on screen until it gets to a character select. Although all the characters are familiar - Zoro’s not exactly culturally _illiterate_ \- he doesn’t really have a favourite.

  
  
“You should be Bowser, you look kind of alike,” Luffy snickers, and then selects Donkey Kong. “That’s me, because my last name is Monkey.”

  
“No it’s not,” Zoro scoffs, following Luffy’s instructions of selecting Bowser. “You're lying.”

 

“I’m not, I swear!” He makes an x over his heart. “Cross my heart, stick a needle in my eye.”

 

“You missed a step,” Zoro amends.

  
Luffy sticks in his tongue out in response as the game loads a track on screen, made entirely of ice. “What’s your last name, anyway?”

  
“Roronoa,” Zoro answers, finally discovering that the 2 button makes his character _go_ , several seconds after the green light was lit.

 

“Row-your-boat-a?”

 

“ _Roronoa_.”

 

“That’s a fake name,” Luffy accuses, and then becomes suddenly very invested in the game, leaning forward. “Come on, Zoro, stop running into stuff! I want it to be a real race.”

 

“It’s not my fault these controls are all out of whack.”

  
“No, I just think you’re really bad at it,” Luffy snickers.

 

He’s not entirely wrong; it takes Zoro a full thirty minutes before he gets into the swing of things, and finds Luffy’s competitive nature is contagious. They end up shouting at each other over who’s going to do the west, even though the NPC’s are absolutely ferocious. Luffy’s a sore loser, Zoro finds, when he places second in one race and pouts about it for the entirety of a course. Zoro keeps staring at the pout in his bottom lip inadvertently and ends up placing last.

 

Of course, Luffy wins the next round and stands up on the couch, pumping his fists in the air. “Haha, hell yeah! Resurrection! Wait -” He stops and squints at the ceiling. “Redemption! That’s what I mean.”

 

Fuck. He’s so cute. Zoro fucked up in a way he didn’t even predict.

 

Luffy’s still mid-celebration when the front door flies upon, the driver of the obnoxious orange car Zoro saw forever ago zipping into the house so quickly Zoro can’t even be entirely sure it’s him. There’s a distant cry of “Fuck yeah, score!” from presumably the kitchen before the freckled stranger returns, one of Zoro’s beers in his hand.

 

He observes the living room before him as he pops open the can. “Ohoho,” he chuckles when he sees Zoro. “It’s you again. That explains - this!” He holds out the can and then proceeds to chug the entire thing in one go. Zoro’s impressed.

 

“Go away, Ace!” Luffy complains, still standing on the couch, and crosses his arms. “We’re playing Mario Kart, leave us alone.”

 

“Leave my baby brother alone with a guy like that?” Ace scoffs, pointing an accusatory finger in Zoro’s direction. “You look like you eat gyms for breakfast. Luffy’s too small for you.”

  
Zoro’s entire face, down into his neck, goes hot so quickly it’s disorientating, as Luffy makes a frustrated noise. “I’m very strong, y’know!”

 

Ace looks Zoro up and down, zeroes in on a place that makes Zoro _very_ uncomfortable, and raises an eyebrow. “Rip,” he says with no context, then looks at Luffy. “Garp’s gonna be home in like thirty minutes. You might want him to dip out.” And then he’s crushing the can in his hands and disappearing back into the kitchen.

 

“You just got hereeeee,” Luffy whines, jumping down from the couch. It’s been a few hours, in reality, although Zoro has to admit he feels the same. “Oh well. We can finish another time!”

 

Zoro can’t believe how disappointed he is at this sudden outcome. He was actually comfortable around Luffy, they fit together in their setting so effortlessly. It actually kind of sucks to have to break that and let all the awkwardness leak back into Zoro’s chest.

 

“Next time, we should go _real_ go-carting, okay?” Luffy says as they’re bidding their goodbyes, Zoro already missing the beer he’s left in Luffy’s fridge. “Not that this wasn’t fun, but it’ll be like extra fun! And then nobody can interrupt our races.”

 

“That actually sounds - nice,” Zoro finishes lamely, then coughs and swallows.

 

“Well, thanks for coming over!” Luffy pauses again the doorway, giving Zoro the same look as before, open and waiting, and Zoro can’t for the life of him figure out what. He spends too much time thinking about is apparently, because Luffy breaks the silence with, “Text me, Zoro!”, before shutting the door.

 

~X~

Zoro thinks keeping Luffy from him says a lot about Sanji as a person.

 

Because, of course, the first person any person with a normal best friend would want to do is tell them all about the person their heart has started doing flips over; especially a person with a tragic backstory behind the word _romance_ who is making great leaps and bounds in handling it. But, nonetheless, Zoro thinks of Sanji catching wind of this and dreads even the _potential_ of Sanji’s teasing. It’s not even the teasing, it’s the _I told you so’s_ and blowing the whole Luffy-thing out of proportion. Sanji running to conclusions with them would destroy all the hard work Zoro’s put into himself to accept, and welcome, the situation.

 

(Mostly, he’s afraid Sanji will mention her by name).

 

All that being said, Zoro feels absolutely no guilt in ignoring Sanji’s questions as to why he was ditching him on the plans they made. He’s not about to tell him it’s because Luffy invited him out again.

 

Luffy invited him to the gallery they both attended the first time one of their Chance Meetings happened, talking up an artist friend who wants to see them, and Zoro feels like he should know who that is but doesn’t ask.

 

They plan to meet up there instead of the routine of Zoro picking Luffy up, and - of course - Zoro’s late as always; by the time he gets there it’s thirty minutes past their meeting time. The gallery parking lots eems a lot emptier than last time - almost painfully so - but it is a Wednesday. Even so, it’s incredibly nice out; not a cloud in the sky, and Zoro’s never been the romantic type to stare at the moon and write waxing poetry about it, but he even has to admit it’s gorgeous tonight. It’s being around the gallery, infecting him with _hipster_.

 

It’s not a very large building, composed of wide open spaces and a different arrangement of art than what was displayed in its grand opening. It hardly takes a scan of the room to locate Luffy, staring blankly at the person he’s talking to. The person - who looks familiar, but Zoro doesn’t have his glasses on - is waving their arms animatedly. Probably shouting about art.

 

Upon closer inspection, Zoro realizes he’s recognizes the curl of dark hair and the spyglass tattoo on his arm - “Usopp?”

Usopp stops mid-sentence and greets Zoro in return, “Zoro!” He doesn’t seem all that surprised.

  
“You know each other?” Zoro asks Luffy, who’s smiling at Zoro’s arrival.

“Huh?” Luffy blinks like Zoro’s broken his train of thought. “Oh, yeah! Usopp’s my best friend. Duh.” Zoro’s confused, because he had assigned Usopp as one of Sanji’s friends, not one of Luffy’s, and it makes him - wonder. He doesn’t really have the time to reflect on it, because, without warning, Luffy stands next to him and makes a show of grabbing his hand.

  
Zoro can’t believe how high school _girl_ the squeak that comes out of his throat sounds, but hey, he was surprised. How was he supposed to be in any way prepared for Luffy lacing his fingers through his like it’s something they do all the time? This time, Luffy’s hand is incredibly warm. Zoro hopes Luffy can’t feel the way his palm breaks out in sweat.

 

“Small world,” Zoro finally formulates a reply, eyes laser focused on his hand in Luffy’s instead of on Usopp.

 

“Not really,” Usopp laughs nervously, and his already pompous nose seems to grow impossibly larger, an illusionary Pinocchio.

 

“Zoro and I have to go now,” Luffy announces suddenly, tugging Zoro towards the door in a fast jerk. “Bye, Usopp, see you later!”

 

Usopp waves bye to them, brow furrowed, but with a small grin that’s remotely _knowing_ , if Zoro squints hard enough. “How did you guys meet?” Zoro starts asking after Luffy drags him outside. “Also, I thought you wanted to go to the gallery -”

 

“Nah, I was just there with Usopp, so I figured I’d have you meet me!” Luffy says, effortlessly ignoring the first question. “I’m actually starrrvvvinnngg,” he puts his free hand over his stomach and moans dramatically. “Let’s go to Arlong! It’s chicken taco Tuesday for that one place, they’re only a dollar -”

 

Luffy continues droning on about all the specials and discounts each individual truck in Arlong Park has to offer, as he guides Zoro by the hand on the path they took the first time they went there. It’s a little later now than the first time, but Luffy insists most of them are still open - “Although, the food is always cold at this time . . . “. Zoro wonders how often he frequents the place to be so knowledgeable on everything.

 

Once Luffy obtains his chicken tacos, sharing half of one with Zoro before seemingly getting disgruntled over having to share in general, he drags him to a truck with _Ice Cream_ hand-painted on a banner hanging from the window of it.

  
The guy in the truck seems far too large to be able to fit in there, with a shoulder span that could easily rival Zoro’s and a Morrisey-esque pompadour that adds at least four inches on his height. “Lu-uffy!” he cries, excited, as soon as Luffy bounds up to the truck and curls his hands around the window framing, standing on his tip toes. Zoro gets the urge to pick him up so he can see inside better, but resists, in the view of someone with whom Luffy is familiar with.

 

“ _Shishishi,_ hi, Franky!” Luffy beams. “Got any ice cream, or did it all melt again?”

 

“Of course it didn’t melt!” Franky, supposedly, puts his hands on his hips. Zoro swears he hears something get knocked over by an elbow in the process. “I have new, state of the art equipment, best freezer in Forbes magazine! What kind do you want?” Zoro doesn't read business magazines, but he’s not sure Forbes contains freezer ratings.

 

“Hm,” Luffy pretends to think about it. “Give me your favourite! Zoro do you want anything?”

 

“Dairy’s not good for me,” Zoro admits to his lactose intolerance.

  
  
“That’s so sad,” Luffy says, rather emotionally.

 

“Uh oh,” Franky mumbles to himself from inside the truck, before sticking his head out again. “Uh, you’re gonna have to give me a second to take a look at this, Luffy -”

  
“Awww man, it melted didn’t it!” Luffy frowns.

  
“Don’t worry, It’s an easy fix!” Franky disappears back inside again. “Five minutes, tops, I brought my lucky wrench today! Just hang on, I’ll get you your ice cream - in the meantime,” he turns back around and passes Luffy an entire fucking jug of cherries. “Have some of these!”

 

“Ooh, yay,” Luffy holds the jar above his head triumphantly, like a character finding an item in a video game. “I’m going to eat this entire thing in one go -”

 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Zoro warns, imagining that Luffy will end up very sick later.

“Is that a dare?” Luffy grins then, jug in arms, runs off in the opposite direction. “I”m gonna do it and you can’t stop me” he calls behind him, eliciting Zoro on a chase across the park. Jeez, the kid will get himself in so much trouble if Zoro doesn’t stay right next to him. He’s no doctor, but surely there's gotta be a health hazard to eating the 100+ cherries in that jar all in one go.

 

Luffy leads them in a wide circle around the park, and Zoro can’t believe the _stamina_ he has to be carrying a ten pound jug of cherries and keep it at a sprint; Zoro blames it on his long legs and is suddenly regretting all his height being in his torso. Eventually, Zoro manages to corner Luffy against a fence, catching him gently by the waist in one hand and laying his other palm against the wood, Luffy backed up to it.

 

Luffy’s eyes are wide, breath quickened from the run.

  
  
“Gotcha.”

 

The intensity of the moment that follows leaves static between them, even with the cherry jar still in Luffy’s grasp in between them, pushing them apart. Zoro finds himself wishing it wasn’t there, and pulls back, swallowing hard. Luffy’s breathing doesn’t slow. “Hey, Zoro, remember the first time we came here?”

 

“Vividly.”

  
“Remember the fence we hopped?” Luffy smiles, pointing above him; Zoro follows the direction with his eyes and finds the giant _NO TRESPASSING_ sign that caused Zoro all sorts of trouble in their first trip. “Dare you to do it again.”

 

“I gotta boost you over first, remember?” Zoro smirks, already lacing his fingers together for Luffy to step into his hands. The cherry jug is sent sailing first, Luffy following suit with about the same level of grace as last time (that is to say, none). Zoro has a better landing the second time around, brushing himself off and joining Luffy where he’s already sitting on the ground, cross-legged and cherry jug in his lap. Zoro can’t believe it survived the trip.

 

Zoro sits next to him, stretching out the kink in his ankle. “Am I still boring?” he asks, feeling daring.

 

“Not at all,” Luffy promises, mouth full of cherries. He offers Zoro the jar, who takes one.

  
“Can you tie a knot?”

  
“Yeah, Garp put me in Boy Scouts . . . ” Luffy trails off, watching Zoro pop the whole cherry into his mouth. It takes several concentrated seconds before Zoro pulls the stem of the cherry from between his teeth and presents it to Luffy, tied in a perfect knot.

 

Luffy swallows, eyes wide; it’s darker where they are, the fence blocking the faint glow of the street lights behind it, but the moon illuminates enough that Zoro can see Luffy’s face go a shade darker than normal. “Oh.”

 

Zoro attempts to brush off Luffys doe-eyed awe. “It’s not a magic trick -”

 

“I’m gonna kiss you now.”

 

 _Wait - what? What?_ Luffy moves too fast for Zoro to see; one second, he’s looking him dead in the eye, and the next Luffy’s hand is on his face, and his mouth over his, and oh, Zoro hasn’t been kissed in a _long, long_ time. Luffy tastes like cherries; his lips are chapped. Zoro’s hot all over, but especially in his sternum, he thinks maybe it’s going to catch on fire if Luffy keeps kissing him.

 

Luffy leans back, inspecting his face as if to gauge a reaction, but now that he’s had it once, Zoro wants it again and closes the space between them - kissing back, he hasn’t kissed someone back in an even longer time. There are fireworks popping in his veins, and Luffy’s mouth is open, and Zoro’s hand is on the back of his neck, and he can’t breathe - he doesn’t want to stop -

 

“Zoro.”

 

Zoro snaps back to reality. He fears he imagined the situation, let his daydreams scamper away from him in the overwhelm of Luffy's presence. If the flushed look on Luffy's face is anything to go by, the rapid rise and fall of both of their chests, then it's far from a dream.

 

Oh. Oh no.

 

Luffy grins again, drapes himself across Zoro’s lap in a pile of lanky limbs; he reaches up to link his hands behind Zoro's neck, and Zoro is downright awestruck at the automatic way his arms wind around Luffy's frame. He fits.

 

“I really like you, Zoro,” Luffy swears up and down; the fire dwindling in Zoro’s belly flares again.

 

“I'm glad,” Zoro says honestly, meaning it wholeheartedly for perhaps the first time. For all his faux acceptances and admittances, all his real hesitations and skepticism, he doesn't think he's caved into anything until this very moment. He should have known at the magnet of Luffy’s smile that moment in the aquarium, face lit by the backlight of a dancing jellyfish filled tank, that he'd end up here. Luffy’s too full of charm and hilarity to be a person to forget. “I like you back. Too.”

 

Luffy is firm in his words, eyes holding Zoro’s in vice grip, when he says, “We could make this something, yknow.”

 

“We could,” Zoro agrees. “We can.” _(Are you sure?_ A voice chants in his head, the same lilting tone that belongs to Sanji, as it so often does. _Are you sure you're ready, are you sure, don't you still dream about her?_ )

 

 _She would like you_ , Zoro thinks towards Luffy, but does not say. The concept finalizes his decision. “Let's make it something.”

 

Luffy is sunshine personified when he laughs and pulls Zoro into a tight hug, squeezing the very life out of him. “I'm so happy, Zoro!”

 

And for everything that's happened, Zoro believes it was worth this very slice of time.

 

~X~

 

Zoro could listen to Luffy talk for hours.

 

He’s not sure what it is about him, but for all his incessant chatter, his constant switching of topics - and the every so often pause to complain about being hungry, again - Zoro can’t find one thing about Luffy that truly annoys him. It’s difficult to find somebody faultless, especially to a man like Roronoa Zoro, and he’s silent in his listening, dumbstruck.

 

They’re on Luffy’s back porch now, conversation between the gentle kissing and fierce hand-holding that’s filled their days for the last two weeks. Zoro finds himself craving a cigarette and curses himself for it; Sanji’s fault, it has to be, it always is. This is annoying, he swore he wouldn’t be a smoker again. Though - Zoro is a man of many addictions.

 

(Now - watching the way Luffy's whole expression laughs with him, he thinks (hopes) he's found the right one.)

 

Zoro wants a smoke now because he thinks it’d add a certain aesthetic quality to the conversation, but the idea of Luffy around secondhand smoke fills him with shielding urge. It’s new, but Zoro knows immediately it’s a feeling to stay.

 

“I’m hungry,” Luffy interrupts himself again, amidst a monologue about foster days with Ace and Sabo (a third brother who is away at some fancy university out of state). He’s learned that the infamous Garp is an ex-Marine who’s shipped his grandsons away to strangers homes and boarding schools; Luffy doesn’t seem to hold any resentment for the fact, so Zoro does it for him. He’s learned Luffy takes college on the slow and steady (which is more than Zoro can say for himself) and devotes his days to the movie theatre job he adores, every Nintendo game you could name off the top of your head, and now, Zoro. His goal in life, as he puts it, is to either “Travel the world!” or “Post a Yelp review for every single fast food/restaurant/food truck in the state”.

 

If Zoro had known all this in their aquarium date days, perhaps he would have found himself here a lot sooner. He can only blame himself for the delay, though.

 

“Let’s find food,” Zoro remembers to reply, standing up and shaking the nicotine cravings from the tips of his fingers, eager to replace it with something else. “You have a fully stocked kitchen.”

 

“Race you there,” Luffy bounces to his feet, sprinting through the sliding glass door so fast Zoro fears he’ll run straight through it. Zoro’s not one for games, and he’s exhausted from the construction job he still hasn’t showered from, but even through aching ankles he chases after Luffy.

 

Of course, Luffy beats him there, already leaning against the kitchen counter with a plate of cookies seemingly from nowhere held aloft over his head. “Haha, finders keepers!” He announces when Zoro steps foot into the kitchen, wheezing a bit.

 

“Didn’t anyone teach you any manners?” Zoro teases with bared teeth, inciting a circular chase around the small, blue-tiled kitchen in false attempts to steal Luffy’s tray. Luffy is nothing but bubbling laughter and tripping feet, and by the time Zoro catches him by the waist against the doorframe, he’s already shoved one of the cookies in his mouth.

 

He offers Zoro a chipmunk's grin. “Too late! Mine now.”

 

“Makes two of us,” Zoro comments without considering it, and is rewarded with a red-faced smile. Luffy seems to think it sweet enough that he even offers Zoro a cookie of his own, and although Zoro isn’t a sweets guy he takes it graciously, thinking Luffy’s the kind of man who only shares his food with people who he truly thinks deserves it.

  
******************************TW************************************* 

 

“Oh no,” a voice says suddenly and Zoro’s across the kitchen in a heartbeat, unable to shake the feeling that he’s been caught with his hand in the cookie jar (almost, quite literally). Looking up he sees none other than Ace. The guilty feeling intensifies for no valid reason; Ace isn’t looking at Zoro, however, but drilling holes into Luffy’s face. “Oh no, what are you eating?!”

 

“Cookies,” Luffy announces happily, and goes to eat another before Ace takes it from him in a movement so quick Zoro thinks he imagined it.

  
“Oh no, oh my God,” Ace is stammering, but there’s a hysterical laughter in his tone, almost manic. “Sabo’s gonna be _pissed_.”

 

Luffy crosses his arms defensively. “He shouldn’t leave food behind when he runs off to college, anyway!” Luffy sticks his tongue out in defiance.

 

Ace opens his mouth to reply, but turns his head quizzically. “Luffy, he hasn’t been here in six months -”

  
“Well they were _gross_ , so they must’ve been old.” Zoro can’t help but agree, although there was a certain tang to them he was sure had to do with his ever-wavering palette. It was only vaguely familiar.

 

“Those took me, like, two days to make, and you ate half the batch,” Ace stares woefully at the tray; half is an exaggeration, as there’s still four left.

 

“Why’d it take you two days to make cookies?” Luffy asks, ever curious; he reaches and out as if to grab another, but Ace makes a panicked noise and smacks his hand away.

  
“Don’t! Save yourself, little brother,” Ace runs a hand through his long hair, very obviously stressed out. “Law’s gonna get the biggest kick out of this, oh man.”

 

“Out of what?” Luffy pouts, obviously disgruntled in being out of the loop. “When did you make up anyway?”

 

“You really want all the gory details,” Ace snorts, breaking out his phone to presumably text Law/Traf (whatever his name is, Zoro can’t keep up, all he knows is the guy has poor knuckle tattoos and a toilet paper covered truck). Zoro’s starting to have a sneaking suspicion surrounding Ace’s panic and wonders when his next work-related drug test is.

 

Luffy ponders over Ace’s question like he’s actually _considering it_ and then shakes his head out of it. “You’re being confuzzling.”

 

“What are you, twelve,” Ace rolls his eyes at the use of the word, then crosses the kitchen to pat Zoro’s shoulder. “Watch him for the next half hour.”

 

“I had one too,” Zoro crosses his arms, giving Ace a knowing look.

  
  
“You two are gonna have a _blast_ ,” Ace winks and then he’s gone, cell phone in hand with the keyboard click noises turned all the way up.

 

“Come on,” Zoro steers a very confused Luffy by the shoulders into the living room. “You’re gonna wanna just - chill out and watch something.”

  
“But,” Luffy whines the word, purposefully slowing his steps and leaning back into Zoro to stop his movements. “You know what Ace was talking about, don’t you? Tell me, Zoro! Come on, tell me.” He’s still being sluggish and the only thing that stops Zoro from picking him up dramatically is knowing Ace is home.

 

“Just - wait it out,” Zoro promises, and although the whole incident was accidental, he’s seasoned in this sort of thing. He’s not sure if Luffy is, especially since he hasn’t caught on yet, and supposes he should be angry at Ace for accidentally doping his brother. To be fair, though, Luffy did bring it on himself, the glutton he is.

 

Luffy squints in the distance like he’s putting two and two together - or at least, attempting to. Zoro swears he sees smoke pouring out of the poor boy’s ears. No pun intended. Zoro feels an obligatory need to protect him at this stage, “Alright, I’ll tell you.”

 

“No - wait,” Luffy interrupts; they’re reaching the couch now and Zoro sits Luffy down by the shoulder, who stares up at him with sharp curiosity. It’s a dangerous angle, really. “Now I wanna know what the big deal is about waiting thirty minutes! So I’ll wait. Also, can we watch _Cake Boss_?”

  
Zoro’s more of a _WipeOut!_ man when a tainted cookie gets to his brain, but he’s always willing to comply to Luffy.

 

Zoro hasn’t eaten all day and is exhausted, so by their second episode in (at which point, Luffy’s comments about how great the cakes look (to eat) have dwindled further and further) his head’s already wandering in slow directions. It takes him several, slow seconds to respond when Luffy says, out of the blue, “Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. I get it now.”

 

“You good?” Zoro asks, an uncontrollable giggle tickling his throat.

 

“Ace thinks I’ve never done this before,” Luffy says in a conspiratorial whisper, and then matches Zoro’s giggle until they’re falling into each other, hands over mouths in order to stifle their laughter. Maybe it’s the THC Zoro’s already well-acquainted with, but he can’t help but pull Luffy closer by the waist. Luffy moves with him effortlessly, slumping over to put his forehead on Zoro’s shoulder.

 

The laughter dies, and everything already feels like a dream but it’s more intense now, with Luffy in his arms. Where did he fuck up? He thinks it suddenly, but with a sort of warm feeling he has no name for. When did he start getting attached; when did he let all those chance encounters get to him after floating in his head, threadless, for so long? When did Luffy stop being “the awkward blind date I had that one time” and started being somebody Zoro has the deepest of fond feelings for?

 

They haven’t known each other that long, Zoro knows, and he’s not full of grandiose emotions about _it feels like we’ve known each other forever_ . It doesn’t feel like that, not really, it’s more of a comfort at the notion that they fit together so easily when their time together has been short. Zoro isn’t sure about _trust_ , but he acknowledges Luffy’s sticky presence in his life whole-heartedly.

 

“Hey, Zoro,” Luffy asks, fingers tapping against Zoro’s other shoulder in inconsistent rhythm. Buddy Valastro is complaining about something loudly on the screen, but somehow it doesn’t ruin the mood they’ve found themselves in. “You believe in like - soulmates, and stuff?”

 

“I believe in karma,” Zoro answers honestly, thinking back to the night they exchanged phone numbers in which he had first considered Luffy as such.

 

“I have great luck,” Luffy giggles in agreement, stilling his finger-tapping to squeeze Zoro’s shoulder instead. “Maybe that’s why you’re here.”

 

Zoro squeezes back, is about to say something really cheesy like _I’m the lucky one_ , when he sees Ace out of the corner of his eye, just to time to watch him cup his hands over his mouth and shout, “Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.”

 

Later, when he and Luffy have eaten every Little Debbie’s dessert in the house after the _Cake Boss_ induced munchies hit, he’s come down enough that he bids his goodbyes. This time, when Luffy stands in the doorway with his expression open and patient, Zoro understands. He kisses him, and it’s good, and Zoro decides getting involved with Luffy was the best thing he’s done for himself in a long time.

 

  
****************************** END TW ************************************* 

  
  
~X~

 

~X~

 

“Who are _you_ texting?” Sanji props his chin in his hand and flutters his eyelashes dramatically.

 

“Nobody you know,” Zoro answers, trying to decipher Luffy’s emoji-filled text message.

 

“You know, that’s what you said at the bar,” Sanji recounts, tapping his finger against his chin. Zoro is hardly paying attention though, attempting to type a coherent reply through the callouses on his thumbs. Damned construction work. “I think you’re full of shit.”

 

“Why would I lie about that?” Zoro challenges . Technically he has been; only subtly, though, because they don’t _really_ know each other. Luffy’s never dropped any inkling that he knows Sanji outside of the whole dating app/set-up thing. There’s an Usopp-shaped connection floating around somewhere, but he thinks it would have been more apparent if it mattered in a relevant sense.

 

Usopp is a green-tinted coincidence, right?

 

“Because you have the brooding, emo aesthetic,” Sanji says like it’s obvious. “I’m Roronoa Zoro and I don’t open up to anybody. I won't even tell my very best friend who it is I have a _crush_ on -”

 

“Who said anything about best friends, because that you are not,” Zoro reminds him for what feels like the millionth time.

 

“I think I deserve to know anyway,” Sanji crosses his arms like a petulant child. Zoro has half a mind to throw his soy latte at his stupid dartbrow. “I need to rethink my career as a matchmaker after you.”

 

Zoro decides arguing with Sanji is pointless and waves him off to return to his text. He’s been irritating ever since the bar incident - well, he’s always been irritating, but excessively so lately. Deciding to see Luffy doesn’t mean Zoro’s all that ready to _share_ him. It might shatter an illusion he doesn’t want to believe is there.

 

Sanji is blissfully silent through the remainder of the text, until Zoro hits send and puts his phone down. There’s a disgusting _softness_ to his face when he looks at Zoro; _what the fuck_. “Don’t start,” Zoro warns, but Sanji’s already jumping into it.

 

“It’s good to see you talking to someone -”

 

“Enough, we’re not going there,” Zoro stops him, loud and insistent; he’s gonna break it, he’s gonna tear down Zoro’s bliss, his Luffy-high. He’s going to bring her up and everything’s going to crash down.

 

It took him until now, but he’s almost certain he finally understands why Luffy is his best kept secret.

 

“Did I say nice?,” Sanji forfeits, expression transforming back to his usual smirk. “It’s kind of sickening, actually. You’re all  - gooey. I can’t wait to tell everyone about the big, soft _homo_ you are.”

 

“S’not really a secret,” Zoro shrugs. His sexuality is the only open thing about him.

 

“Your crush is. It’s _annoying_ ,” Sanji says around his coffee cup, eyes flashing. “After we all tried so hard too!”

 

Something about that makes Zoro stop. “We? Tried? Tried to what?”

 

“You’re off schmoozing around with some mystery guy, when we - Usopp and Nami, I mean,” Sanji waves a hand, “Were desperate to get you and Luffy hooked up. I mean, that’s why we went to the tattoo shop, and the movies - “ Zoro’s stopped listening at this point, heart hammering loud in his ears. What? Luffy - they don’t know each other - Usopp - wait.

 

It was a set up? Is that what Sanji is saying?

 

“ . . . You kept missing each other somehow,” Sanji lifts his coffee in the air in a mocking toast. “Guess you and PirateKing weren’t meant to be after all.”

 

“Wait,” Zoro chokes out, hand gripped so tight around his own latte that the plastic lid pops off. Sanji stares at it, wide-eyed, and leans back. “Did you not just pick someone random from the stupid app thing?”

 

“The profile was _real_ , and obviously he was, but that was just an in! It was a way to get you to agree because I know you far too well, in my opinion, and I knew I couldn’t just set you up with one of _my_ friends. It would have never happened,” Sanji shrugs. “A fruitless effort, anyhow, all my energy _wasted_.”

 

“You’re a fucking idiot, you know that?”

 

Zoro says it to his “friend”, to the stupid, shitty cook, curly-browed _fuck_ who he was always right to believe in hiding shit from. Sanji’s as slimy and snakey as they come, Zoro always knew that - God, it all makes sense now. All of Luffy’s talk of magnets and soulmates, it was all _fake_ , a ruse. He shouldn’t have ever believed in karma, but in the nudging feeling of puppeteers behind theatre curtains. He should have trusted his instincts. He’s more angry at himself for being as stupid as they come.

 

He calls Sanji the idiot, but it was he himself who was all along.

 

“I’m used to your insults by now, but there’s a lot of venom in that one,” Sanji whistles. “What’s your problem, marimo?”

 

“My problem?” Zoro snorts, stands because he can’t stand to sit across from Sanji any longer; he wants to rip the smirk off his face and throw it back at him. He can’t believe this. He shouldn’t have gotten attached. Luffy was always too good to be true. “You are, you’re fucking - your ‘Operation Fix Zoro’ conceited bullshit. Been strung along this whole time, God, what a fucking -”

 

“What on Earth are you talking about?” Sanji cries now, experated. The confusion Zoro sees must be as fake as the rest of him. He’s never met someone so full of garbage in his life.

 

“You know, Sanji,” Zoro says his name for what is perhaps the first time, and makes sure to coat it in a _sneer_. “Would’ve been real nice to know Luffy was just pitying me. Thanks for helping a friend out.”

 

“Luffy? But you don’t - Oh my God.” Sanji blinks in realization. “The Mystery Guy was _Luffy_ this whole time?! Nami is gonna be thrilled - our careers as matchmakers are _saved -_ ”

 

“No, they’re not, it’s over.” Zoro immediately gathers his things, keen on deleting every phone number from his cell and dropping all of them completely. He’s always been better off alone anyway. What was he thinking in the first place? He knew he fucked up, he knew it.

 

“Hang on -”

 

“Fuck off, Sanji.”

 

Something sincere must have held in his inflection, because even pushy, overbearing, _domineering_ Sanji leans back, startled, and watches, stunned, as Zoro flees the coffee shop.

 

~X~

 

>> **I FOUND A COOL CARTOON WE SHOULD WATCH ITS ABOUT ROBOTS IN SPACE** **  
** **  
** >> **WE DON’T HAVE 2 THO I KNOW U LIKE UR REALITY TV** **  
** **  
** **  
  
**

**> >LOOK @ THIS NEW FAST FOOD PLACE I FOUND WE SHOULD GO**

[http://8exll2rwl8l1f2ayejq2l9yh.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Wienerschnitzel-Store-Picture-3-550x420.jpg ](http://8exll2rwl8l1f2ayejq2l9yh.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Wienerschnitzel-Store-Picture-3-550x420.jpg)  

 

 

>> **SORRY I COULDNT WAIT!!! ACE TOOK ME I GOT FOOD POISONING** **  
  
**

>> **ZOROOO IM SICK :( :( :(**

 

 

 

 

>> **ZORO!!!**

>> **HOW WAS WORK?** **  
**

 

 

 

>> **ZORO?????** **  
** >> **WHERE ARE YOU**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
>> **ZORO :(**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> **Did I do something?**

  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> **Zoro?**

 

~X~

 

~X~

Zoro didn’t think he still had it in him to chainsmoke.

 

He’s halfway through the pack before he starts hacking, and coughing, but he can’t make it more than five minutes without an overwhelming, itching, burning need to fill his lungs up once again. His throat is sore, his tongue is made of ash, he’ll smell for a week - but the cravings remain. He wonders how Sanji can smoke so much and still keep his teeth so white.

 

He feels sick, nauseous, but can’t figure out of it’s from the cigarettes, Sanji, Luffy, or some combination of the three. He decides on the latter and before the filter burns out, he’s already lighting the end of another one. It’s 3 AM and he’s been out here for hours, he starts work in just three more, but - he had another dream. Now, he doesn’t really remember what it was about. All he knows is he woke up sweating, a name slotted between his teeth.

 

The first four cigarettes, he felt nothing, but around the fifth he started getting angry again. Angry at feeling _played_ and lied to ( _but~_ , the lilting, teasing voice in his head is that of a ghost’s, _you lied to him, too, you hid things from him too. You were always like that. You don’t like showing your feelings and this Luffy is something you feel._ ) Maybe she’s right, maybe it’s not fair to Sanji. It was never Sanji’s fault he hid Luffy from him, as much as Zoro tried to blame him for it.

 

Seven cigarettes, and he feels like puking. He’s disappointed. He’s disappointed in himself. He’s disappointed in trusting himself with Luffy too quickly. He got caught up in Luffy’s smile, the chaotic, eccentricness of his personality in flashing contrasts to Zoro’s ever brooding self. He believed they balanced. He believed he could get involved with someone like that and _mean_ it, and not think of _her_ -

 

Eight, nine cigarettes; he’s disappointed. He’s disappointed that she still matters as much as she does.

 

It’s awful, really - people lose their loved ones all the time and it doesn't turn them into a forever weeping, self-destructive mess. Three years is too long to still be in this much mourning, to still hold her death as a wall around him. Maybe it was how sudden it was - maybe it was knowing that he would have to live the rest of his life without her, all their life plans gone before even graduation. Maybe he was just never as strong of a person as he believed himself to be. Maybe this, and maybe that, whatever the reason, the feeling remains.

 

Ten cigarettes. He will give Luffy up, fold himself back into his usual modus operandi - he will go to work, and come home, sleep, and once a week see Sanji if he’s feeling up to it, and he will continue his old routine before that ball of sunshine bounced in and messed everything up. It’s easier for Zoro to give up that light then battle with the _guilt_ that hovers over him every time he looks at Luffy.

 

Maybe, this is just the way things are meant to be.

 

He’s twelve cigarettes in before he forfeits.

 

~X~

 

_3 Missed Calls - Snooj_

 

Zoro’s still half asleep as he blinks wearily at his phone screen; he didn't even realize he had it in his hand until it was already there. He reaches blindly for his glasses somewhere on his nightstand and after much fumbling, manages to slide them on. There’s a string of unopened messages from Luffy. He mass deletes them before he can dwell.

There’s a voicemail from Sanji, the notification for which awoke him. A very tired version of himself deems it worth listening to:

 

“ Marimo, pal, friend - I am SO drunk and so is U-You-Usopp! Whoa -” there’s a stretch of five seconds, made of falling feet and self-induced laughter. “ Anyways, I am completely too intoxicated to drive, and Nami-swan is having a girl’s night with Vi. So I’m not about to bother her, I don’t have a death wish -” The voicemail ends abruptly.

Another one comes through just as Zoro is deleting the first. A more awake him still deems it necessary to listen to:

“You hung up ! No - Voicemail, right. Anyways, I know you’re mad ‘cause of the Luf thing buuut - I’d rather not die tonight. I’m at the bar - shop! By the tattoo bar. Okay, see you soon, byeee.”

Zoro shouldn’t, and he certainly doesn’t want to but - there’s that DUI they never discuss.

(It was Sanji, because of course it was. He got dumped after Valentine’s Day, drank and entire bottle of moscato, and drunk-dialed Zoro asking him for a Thelma and Louise ending where they jump off a cliff together. Naturally, Zoro declined. So, Sanji took it upon himself to - well, attempt - drive to the beach and find his own damn cliff.

Zoro got a call from a local police department not thirty minutes later, transferred back and forth between a blubbering Sanji and an annoyed cop. A court date (or two) later and they make the poor bastard go through a dramatic, rigorous, drunk driving class. The kind where they show you grotesque footage of accidents caused by drunk driving, real gory stuff. In the time of suspended licenses, Zoro used to pick a grey, washed-out, silently shaking Sanji from those meetings.

They certainly worked - Sanji doesn’t even take his car to bars with him now, and Zoro made a ( mistake, in hindsight) promise to never let Sanj be drunk and stranded again).

Zoro can hate Sanji all he wants in light of recent events (hate himself, as well), but the fact remains - Zoro is a man of his word.

He checks the time. It’s only barely midnight. Sanji’s always been a lightweight.

_< < on my way_

**> > ur es a s ho e**

**> >sajor**

**> >SA V Ior**

~X~

 

There’s a paranoia that spills over Zoro like oil, that he’ll see somebody he knows. It’s brought on by the realization that it’s Friday night, and the bar is packed with people who are slowly - if they haven’t already  - meeting the same fate as Sanji.

 

(Zoro and Luffy always have a habit of running into each other. Reminding himself it was probably all a setup makes the itching on his skin worse - how does he know Sanji didn’t get voluntarily shitfaced in some grand scheme to make them reunite? Zoro wouldn’t put it past him).

 

Speak of the curly fuck - he’s not difficult to locate, even in the thick throng of people. There’s only one person who can butcher Toxic by Britney Spears every single time they get drunk, and nobody can do it quite as obnoxiously as Sanji Vinsmoke can.

 

Now that he’s found him, slumped over a table but still conscious, Zoro’s set on hauling him out of there before the paranoia becomes reality.

 

“Marimooooo,” Sanji calls out, still mid-tune between _with the taste of your lips I’m on a ride_ and _you’re toxic, I’m slipping under_ . “Why y’here so early? It’s only one am! I don't need a ride yet!”

Usopp’s swaying next to him at the table, face flush and nearly face planting into Sanji’s lap. Zoro raises an eyebrow at the motion but refuses to comment. None of his business. “You texted me,” Zoro reminds Sanji. “And left two voicemails.”

“I did? Oh man, I’m wasted ,” Sanji gasps, then puts a hand to his head, fingers still curled around a beer bottle.

 

“Let’s go.” Zoro rolls his eyes. “Oi, Usopp, you’re coming with.”

“No ,I’m not,” Usopp cries like a defiant child, crossing his arms. “I’m mad at you out of Best Friend Obligations!” He sticks his tongue out at Zoro and blows a rather sloppy, beer-scented raspberry.

 

“What the hell did I do?!” Zoro demands, although he 100% probably has a good idea. He’s a masochist, he decides.

 

Instead of answers, he gets, “You know what you did - you - you tease .” Usopp proceeds to turn his char opposite of Sanji and vomit all over the floor.

 

“Alright kids, we’re going home.” Zoro starts with Sanji, deciding if Usopp’s gonna keep hurling he’d rather him get it all out on the bar floor than in the cab of his own truck. Sanji is as flopping as a fish as Zoro tries to hoist him up with nothing but an arm thrown over Zoro’s shoulders.

 

“Don’t make this embarrassing for both of us,” Zoro grumbles as Sanji teeters into him dangerously.

 

“Drank too fast. Stood up too fast,” Sanji replies, nods to himself like he’s come to an agreement about something.

 

“White Russian?” Zoro guesses.

 

“Every time,” Sanji answers, and then his knees give out. Those damn things - Zoro’s told him again and again that the dairy sneaks up on him, will have him tipsy one moment and blacked out the next, but does he ever  listen? No. If he ever did, they wouldn’t be in this grandiose Luffy mess they’re in the first place. Although, he agrees it’d be a more bearable one with some alcohol.

 

Zoro has no choice at this point. “I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” he gripes, and proceeds to lift Sanji like the twink he is and hoist him fireman style over his shoulder. Someone wolf whistles in the background, and Zoro regrets not having a free hand to give them the bird.

 

“Oi, put me down, I don’t like you like that!” Sanji bangs his fists against Zoro’s back, without any real strength behind it. He gives up before Zoro even crosses the threshold out the door, slumping over and flopping his arms uselessly down Zoro’s back.

 

“This is embarrassing,” Sanji complains as Zoro wrestles with the passenger-side door handle of his truck in order to get it open. It’s a bit of a struggle, takes one hard yank , and Zoro uses the momentum from it to lean over and allow Sanji to slide off his shoulder into the car itself. Sanji at least has the decency to sit back up, looking rather green in doing so, but giving Zoro enough room to fit Usopp in next to him.

 

“Don’t fucking throw up,” Zoro threatens.

 

“No promises.” Sanji burps into his fist.

Usopp seems in much better spirits when Zoro goes in after him as well, having finished cleansing himself of all the vomit and, likely, alcohol. He’s bordering hungover by the time Zoro guides him out the bar by the shoulder, sticking his long nose up in the opposite direction. He won’t even look Zoro in the eye. Zoro doesn’t really blame him.

 

Stepping outside, the summer air makes Usopp woozy and after asking Zoro, in a snippy, brief way, if he could just “have a moment”, he sits on the sidewalk in front of the bar. Usopp holds his hands in his hands and groans loudly, “My head hurttttsss. It’s not even tomorrow yet -”

 

“Oi,” Zoro interrupts suddenly, catching something out of the corner of his eye. He thought he heard a faint scratching noise, assumed it was Usopp being drunkenly weird or one of the many odd noises of the night. It was neither of those things but instead a man, in a neon orange t-shirt with a house key in his hand. “What the fuck are you doing?”

 

The man looks up from where he’s carving deep grooves into the side of Zoro’s truck. “None of your business.”

 

“You’re fucking up my truck, of course it’s my damn business -” Zoro starts marching over there, hand raised. He can’t decide if he’s going to beat the shit out of this guy or - no, actually, he’s going to.

 

“This isn’t yours ,” the guy snorts, and now that Zoro’s closer he recognizes the pattern of his freckles. “This is that asshole , Trafalgar fucking Law, the worst human being - wait.” He squints at Zoro, who’s dropped his hand now that’s he realized who it is. The paranoia-oil over his skin ignites, face flaring as he stumbles back. He knew this was going to happen, he knew it. “I know you.”

 

Zoro is suddenly reminded of the time Luffy convinced him to TP Law’s truck. _Funny, looks kinda like yours_ , Luffy had said. Staring at Ace now he feels something akin to a blackhole open inside his chest, suckingg everything in until he’s left numb (and anxious). “No, you don’t.” Even to himself, it sounds squeaky and panicked.

 

“Yeah, yeah I do!” Ace points a finger threateningly at Zoro, housekey still in his palm. Zoro winces as he turns to look at his truck. Ace was interrupted somewhere behind the second “S” and the “H” in what he can only presume to be the word _asshole_. He’s furious in every way but in the face of Luffy’s brother, he can only think that he mostly deserves to drive around town with the word _ass_ and a half of an “H” keyed into the side of his truck.

 

“You’re that guy ,” Ace continues. “The one Luffy was talking to. What the fuck happened to you?”

 

Zoro can’t say he’s not surprised Ace hasn’t dropkicked him to the ground already, considering his big brother role. Still, he can’t help but cringe at the size of Ace’s arms as he crosses the over his chest, jaw aching for the inevitable. “I, uh -”

 

“He’s been moping around the house for weeks because of you! Why, I oughta -” he steps forward and Zoro already has his hands thrown up in defense, but Ace deflates with a loud exhale. “I’d beat your ass right now if he didn’t make me promise not to track you down and do it anyway.” He looks rather disgruntled at the agreement he made with Luffy. “Still think you’re a piece of shit.”

 

You’re not wrong , Zoro thinks, lowering his arms cautiously. “Tell him I’m sorry,” he chokes out.

 

“Fuck no, you tell him,” Ace waves off, tossing the key from his right hand to his left. “Listen, I’m gonna be upfront with you ‘cause I gotta finish this up before Trash-falgar comes back -”

 

“That’s not his truck -”

 

“- So I’ll tell you right now. You’re missing out, Luffy’s a great kid! I always thought something was off about you, though, so he’s probably better off.” Ace rolls his eyes. “If it was up to me, I’d tell you to stay away from my baby bro and go about your business, but . . . Luffy doesn’t take a liking to people. You should have considered yourself pretty damn special.”

 

The black hole in Zoro’s chest expands; he’s collapsing in on himself, finally feeling the weight of the _asshole_ he truly is. Ace is right to imply that it was unfair of Zoro to disappear off the face of the Earth, in Luffy’s eyes.

 

“There’s a reason -” Zoro starts, desperate, although his explanation dies on his tongue when Ace meets his eyes.

 

“Don’t tell me. Tell him. You owe him that much. Just fucking tell the kid why and get out of his life.”

 

Before Zoro can say anymore on the matter, the door of the tattoo shop opens with a bang; Zoro and Ace turn simultaneously to see Law standing there in all his textbook 90s heroin chic glory. “Ace?”

 

“Shit, gotta go!” Ace passes the key to Zoro as if to set him up and darts across the parking lot. He’s gone before Zoro can even get a blink in. Zoro turns back to stare at Law. Law stares back. Finally, after heavy, uncomfortable silence, Law sighs, shakes his head, and goes back inside as if to believe he’s just imagining things.

 

Zoro stares at the assh cut into the door of his truck and feels an overwhelming sense of guilt. Ace is right, of course he is, he’d probably know Luffy better than anyone. Luffy was great. Zoro is not, and Zoro is nowhere near brave enough to pick up the pieces he’s left; Ace was just as right to say Luffy was better off without him, anyway.

 

Usopp has been silently shocked through the whole thing, eyes wide and nose dripping, but he stands now and points an equally accusatory finger at Zoro. “I concur!” He stumbles the other side of Zoro’s truck and climbs in.

 

Once inside, Zoro turns to ask Sanji why the fuck he didn’t stop Ace from keying up his car, but Sanji is already zonked out, with Usopp following behind soon after.

~X~

Zoro starts and deletes thirteen different messages to Luffy the following day, making himself sick every time with his “ an apology isn’t good enough ”s and I still have some stuff I need to work out ’s. It’s all bullshit anyway, there’s nothing good enough for making Luffy feel bad. He was always too good for Zoro and his tragic backstories, his blaming others for everything, his distant behavior.

 

It’s taken this whole event for Zoro to discover how bad of a person he’s become in the wake of her death, and every moment of self reflection has been spent with an urge to throw up all the microwaved instant ramen he’s been living off of. Feeling alone and sultry, he binge watches Flip or Flop until his eyes are fuzzy.

 

He’s on bowl three of beef-flavoured ramen, mouth full of the stuff when there’s a knock on the door. He’s ashamed with himself at how quickly he gets up to answer it, nearly choking when none other than Sanji himself pushes his way inside. He’s wearing a pair of knock-off Gucci sunglasses, hair unwashed and sticking up in various directions. He’s not even wearing one of his obnoxious button-ups, just a t-shirt with GENTLECOOK typeset across it.

 

“I feel awful ,” Sanji introduces himself with, wandering into Zoro’s tiny, off-set kitchen to dig through his fridge. He emerges with one of Zoro’s protein shakes and the pack of frozen bacon that’s been sitting in there for almost a month. “You know what, I should have stopped after shot number seven.”

“How many did you end up doing?” Zoro indulges, leaning over his counter as he watches Sanji rescue a dusty frying pan from under his sink and put it on the stove with a clank . There’s a certain familiarity in Sanji’s actions that make Zoro feel a little better - not that’d ever say that out loud, never, not in a million years.

 

“Twelve or so.” Sanji shrugs. “Had a great time, though.”

 

For a solid fifteen minutes, the only sound is the sizzling of the bacon in the frying pan. Finally, Sanji sighs, and takes his sunglasses off. “I saw your truck on the way in.”

 

“God, I’m fucking pissed,” Zoro begins to rant. “I didn’t do shit, he was going after his stupid, emo boyfriend’s car and got mine instead - they don’t even look alike.”

 

“They kind of do,” Sanji muses. “Accidents happen. So what did Ace say?”

 

Zoro swallows. “About?” He can see the way Sanji’s playing off the event in order to get to the matter at hand; he’ll drag it out of Zoro even if he has to pin him down and pull his teeth out to get him to talk. Sanji’s as relentless in this as he is in his stupid matchmaking.

 

“You know.” Sanji side-eyes him.

 

Zoro rubs at his eyes. “He told me to talk to him.”

 

“You should.”

 

“And say what, dartbrow?” Zoro snaps. “‘Hey, it really pissed me off you pity-dated me, and all the people I’ve been calling “friends” set this up in the first place to fucking - fucking play God or some shit with my life’?!”

 

“He didn’t pity-date you, you fucking idiot,” Sanji yells back, unafraid to meet Zoro halfway with all his rage. “He fucking liked you and you did that _thing_ that you always do,” he flails his hands wildly, spatula in hand. “That thing!”

 

“What _thing_ ,” Zoro sneers.

 

“The same shit you did to Johnny, just - drop out of his life. Ace was right, you should have told him _why_ .”

 

“How do you know what Ace said, you were passed out while he fucked up my truck!”

 

“Usopp beared witness.” Sanji turns the stove off and stomps over to one of Zoro’s cupboard to rescue two plates out. “That’s not the point.”

 

“How about you then,” Zoro challenges, voice levels still risen. “You tell me why you pushed, and pushed, and fucking _meddled_ when you should have been minding your own damn business.”

 

Sanji waits a few moments, stewing in his own anger as he prepares to plates of half-assed bacon. As furious as he is, he knows how Sanji works and follows him to the kitchen table to sit down so he can at least have the decency to yell at him to his face. HIs apartment reeks of bacon grease and the cigarettes he’s still chain smoking.

 

“You wanna know why?” Sanji asks suddenly, pushing his plate aside and folding his hands on the table.

 

“Yeah I fucking do -”

 

“You still keep Kuina’s picture in your wallet.”

 

Zoro stops, frozen solid by the name. _KuinaKuinaKuina_ , it rocks him to the core every time he’s unfortunate enough to hear it outloud, it instantly makes tears prick the back of his eyes, his fists curl, his heart ache, and ache, and ache. His wallet burns in his pocket. “So what?”

 

“Look, I’m not saying three years is long enough to forget her, it’s not,” Sanji nods to himself. “I’m saying you not _letting_ yourself move on when I know you want to - and don’t say you don’t.” He puts a hand up to stop Zoro as he moves to speak. “You wouldn’t have gone out with those girls from the dating app in the first place if you didn’t. You’re allowed to like other people, Roronoa.”

 

“I know that -”

 

“Then why do you look like a kid who just got caught stealing a fucking cookie?” Sanji asks.

 

“You don’t fucking get it.” Zoro hunches over the table. “We had everything planned out, our whole fucking lives, and she up and _dies_ \- imagine if tha was Nami?” Sanji leans back quickly like he’s been shocked. “Imagine having your future planned out with her, and something happens to her.”

 

“I can’t,” Sanji admits. “But Nami wouldn’t want me to live the way you are. You’re lost, Zoro, when you’ve had time to not be. Someone like Luffy was good for you - no, Luffywas good for you. You lit up every time he texted you. It was -” Sanji exhales, hard. “Not to be _gay_ , but it was the first time I’ve seen you smile in God damn years.”

 

Zoro doesn’t have words for that. “She would have liked him,” he whispers eventually.

 

Sanji blinks. “Yeah,” he says slowly. “She would have. Listen, bro, we did this - Nami, Usopp, and I - we set you up because you needed a push in the right direction. I knew Luffy would be good for you, I mean come on, I’m basically Millionaire Matchmaker .” He laughs to himself, and Zoro has to admit it lightens the mood. “I’m not gonna set my best friend up with a loser!”

 

Zoro can’t believe Sanji’s still willing to call him that after everything. “I wasn’t trying to ruin our life,” Sanji continues. “You did that on your own, my guy.”

 

“God,” Zoro puts his fingers to his temples and inhales deeply. “I fucked up.”

 

“Yeah, you did.” Sanji takes a bite out of one of his bacon strips. “I forgive you, by the way.”

 

Zoro doesn’t even have to begin to ask for what. He vows to himself to be a better friend to the sole person who’s willing to put up with all his fucked up bullshit. He won’t tell him that, though. For all his denial of Sanji being his friend, the stupid, shitty cook really, really is; if he’s gotta lose Luffy, and Usopp, and maybe even Nami, he at least has to have the bastard still around. Kuina always liked Sanji, too.

 

“Thanks.”

 

Sanji raises an eyebrow. “Okay, Luffy’s turn.”

 

“It doesn’t matter.” Zoro throws his hands up. “I pushed him away, and cut him off, he’s not going to want anything to do with me.”

 

“Oh,” Sanji smiles, slowly. “I don’t believe that.”

 

~X~

Zoro starts thirteen more messages, deletes them all again. Sanji convinced him enough that this is _Luffy_ they’re talking about, of course he’d be thrilled to hear from you. Still  he’s torn between his original revelation, his first one about Luffy, about giving in, and letting him into his heart. He really is good, he fits there, Zoro believed everything in the dreamy few weeks he allowed himself to feel Luffy as wholly as he did.

After Ace’s (albeit, accidental) conversation, though, he’s still stuck believing that Luffy is truly better off without something like that. After his conversation with Sanji, and all his self-reflection, Zoro knows he has a lot to work on about himself; he has to make himself a better person if he wants to be with Luffy.

 

(Zoro wouldn’t mind Luffy being there for the ride while he works on himself. He really misses him).

 

He finds himself wishing, idly, that some kind of sign would appear to lead him on the right path.

 

Suddenly, there’s a sharp three-tap tone on his door, Sanji’s signature. He can’t imagine what the curlybrow could possibly want now, he already ate all his bacon. They’ve talked about their feelings enough to cover themselves for the next year, they’ve filled their over sharing quota.

 

“What is it -” Zoro starts to say as he opens the door, when out of nowhere he’s being knocked right off his feet.

 

When he comes too, blinking the dizziness out of his eyes he sees a little kid hs’ never met before, with wild, tawny hair and a smear of blue paint across his nose like he got an argument with a paintbrush.

 

It was only the surprise that knocked Zoro down, but now he’s trapped as the kid sits cross-legged on his chest, grinning.  “I got him, I got him!” The kid cries, pumping his fists in the air triumphantly.

 

“Who the hell -” he starts, when he sees Sanji, Nami, and Usopp lean over him, all smiling rather creepily. “What the hell is going on? Who the hell are you?!”

 

“Good job, Chopper!” Sanji cries, rubbing the kid’s -Chopper, apparently - head.

 

“Here you go, Chopper,” Nami coos, handing him a sickeningly large lollipop, similar to the giant, rainbow-colored ones you get from Disney World food carts.

 

“We’re kidnapping you,” Usopp cackles.

 

“Up you go, marimo.” Sanji reaches a hand out to pull Zoro to his feet as Chopper finally climbs off his chest. Zoro takes it begrudgingly and gets to his feet, dusting himself off. Behind Sanji, Nami stands beaming with a hand on Chopper’s shoulder, who’s already got both hands holding the lollipop type as he sinks his teeth into his. Zoro hears it crack and winces.

 

“Whose kid?” Zoro points at the smiling little shit.

 

“That’s Tony,” Usopp says offhandedly. “We’re taking him to the fair, we need help chaperoning!”

 

“You could have just asked me!”

 

“Oh, that never works with you,” Sanji waves a hand. “Grab your coat.”

 

“You know I hate carnivals,” Zoro gripes, but desperate for a break from his still bacon-and-cigarette scented house reluctantly agrees, grabbing his jacket off the hook by the door. “You guys are so over the top.”

 

“Drama Queen is my middle name,” Nami agrees, skipping behind Zoro to put both hands on each of his shoulders and gently pushes him towards the door. “Now let’s get going! Also, I missed you too.”

 

“Good to see you,” Zoro mumbles.

 

Downstairs, there’s a rather conspicuous vehicle waiting, one of those bright purple Jeeps you have to pay to get painted yourself. Behind the wheel is a rather pretty woman, who has quite a few years on the crew, but maintains her beauty in the length and shine of her dark hair. She waves at them as they come stumbling down the stairs.

 

Zoro isn’t too keen on stepping inside a stranger’s car, but Sanji and Nami user him in the back as Usopp cries shotgun. It’s a rather tight squeeze, but at least it’s one of those obnoxious Jeeps with no windows so he can get some air.

 

Somehow, he ends up squeezed between Sanji and Chopper, with Nami balanced on Sanji’s lap. Zoro can see his boner from here and cringes. “You must be Zoro,” the driver greets as she pulls out of Zoro’s complex. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Uh, yeah, hi.” Zoro waves to her from the rearview mirror. “Sorry, you are?”

 

“Robin is fine. You’ve met my husband, Franky.” Zoro racks his brain for a face to put with the name but comes up short; Robin seems to notice by his silence and says, “He runs an ice cream truck in Arlong Park.”

 

“Oh, the guy with the cherries,” Zoro figures out. Another Luffy-related incident. Everything always has seemed to go back to him.

 

“Hey, Zoro?” Chopper asks shyly, face covered in the remains of his lollipop. His teeth are stained blue when he smiles. “You said you don’t like carnivals, why?”

 

The people, the food, he hates going on rides anyway, he’s awful at every single fair game. “I don’t like clowns,” is the most honest answer.

 

“Oh, me either!” Chopper agrees. “They’re scary.” He shivers.

 

Zoro very much agrees, but he’s not going to let Sanji hear him say that (not that he’s really paying attention, what with a lap full of Nami who keeps giving him pouty looks and whispering something in his ear).

 

The fair in question is one of the local ones that pop up out of nowhere in every town for a week out of the year. He doesn’t recall hearing anything about the fair coming to town, not that it’s really anything he’s actively seeking out. Chopper is out of the car before it’s even come to a full stop and sprints to the ticket booth, Usopp chasing after him.

 

“Thank you for taking him,” Robin says to the remaining three. “Ah, I can’t wait to go home and relax with a glass of wine and a book.” SHe giggles to herself about her wonderful night ahead before zipping off, Jeep beeping.

 

“You’re paying for me, right?” Zoro nudges Sanji as they walk to catch up with Usopp and Chopper.

 

“Of course not!” Sanji snorts. “I never agreed to that!”

“Save your money,” Nami encourages, patting Sanji’s arm. “After all, you have a diamond necklace to save up for  for me.”

Zoro rolls his eyes as Sanji breaks out into a chorus of swooning Of course, Nami-swan!~ ’s. Once inside the gates, Zoro takes a moment to glance around. The sun has already set, leaving the sky a washed out twilight; the clouds hovering reflect the lights of the fair back at them, turning the color of the sky into a milky purple. Really, the only big attraction as far as Zoro can see is a Ferris Wheel, lit up all different colors, and one of those pirate ship rides that swing back and forth. _Luffy would like that_ , Zoro thinks to himself. He almost finds himself looking for him in the throng of fair food trucks lined off to the left.

Chopper catches sight of them too and grabs onto Zoro’s arm. “Cotton candy!” he cries, wildly pointing. “Can we please get some!”

“Sure thing,” Zoro laughs. Zoro’s an only child and has never felt the need to fill the absent role of siblings, but with Chopper hanging onto him now he wonders what it would have been like to have a younger sibling.

“After that, let’s check out the Funhouse!” Usopp pumps his fist in the air.

 

Zoro volunteers to get Usopp and Chopper cotton candy, foregoing himself; Nami and Sanji have long since wandered off, probably to hunt down some Tunnel of Love shit. Zoro finds himself wandering after Usopp and Chopper, not trusting the former enough to watch the kid. Usopp is still ignoring Zoro for the most part, but Zoro can’t tell if it’s because he’s still mad via Luffy, or because he’s distracted by all the flashing colors and fun sounds the fair is providing. Probably both.

 

He waits, rocking on his heels as they take themselves through the Funhouse four times in a row, stumbling out and laughing about the fun mirrors every single time. He’s starting to get bored, although he only got enough tickets for himself in case Chopper, or someone else, runs out. By how many times they’ve gone through this dang thing, he’s glad he did.

 

Chopper grows bored the house, with all it’s pastel blues and yellows and funny characters painted on the side, and starts pulling Usopp and Zoro elsewhere. “Oh, look, they have another one,” Zoro points out as they loop around the park.

 

“I don’t think that house is for fun,” Usopp shivers. Zoro supposes he’s right - it’s done up in darker purples with creepy-crawlies painted on the side, bats and spiders and zombies (oh my!). A rickety old sign with the words _THRILLER BARK_ hangs precariously off the front.

 

“That’s scary,” Chopper cries, hiding behind Zoro as faux thunderstorm noises play from the haunted house.

 

“I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

 

“Then you go in,” Usopp insists, sticking his tongue out at Zoro. Zoro’s not really interested in partaking in any of the fair activities, haunted house included, but with Usopp’s challenge he feels as if he has a point to prove.

 

“I can do it if Zoro can!” Chopper puts his fists on either sides of his hips and sticks his chest out, Superman style.

“Then let’s go together,” Zoro urges. “You have to face your fears sooner or later.”

Chopper squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head, then opens them with a brave expression on. “Okay, let’s do it!”

 

“I’m not going in there!” Usopp plants his feet firmly on the ground.

 

“Yes you are,” Zoro takes him by the shoulders and guides him towards the entrance. “Do it for Chopper’s sake. It’s a kiddy ride, don’t be a pansy.”

 

Usopp makes whimpering noises their entire wait in line; by the time they’re up on the loading platform, it’s mostly full, save for one and a half carts. They’re so tiny, Zoro doesn’t think he can fit himself into them; there’s gotta be a muscle mass limit on these things, right?

 

Chopper, still trying to be brave, follows the operator’s instructions and climbs into one of the empty carts, Usopp following behind. With only one seat left, Zoro’s completely willing to give his spot up. “Be men,” he tells them. “I’ll wait for you at the end.”

 

“Noo, I can’t do it unless you come to! Even if we don’t sit together!” Chopper pouts with wide eyes. God damn it.

 

“Okay, okay, fine,” Zoro sighs. “I’ll be up here.” He points to the only empty cart, the very first one, and waves as he heads over there. There’s a single person in it, and although he’s exactly thrilled (no pun intended) on being crammed into this dilapidated, likely unsafe cart-thing with a total stranger, he can’t really say no to Chopper. For as little as he knows the kid, Zoro’s as big a softy inside as Sanji accuses him of being.

 

Standing in front of the cart, suddenly he recognizes the straw hat perched on the stranger’s head.

 

_My God._

 

Luffy looks over in time to see Zoro standing aimlessly in front of him - he lights up instantly, grinning so large Zoro thinks he’ll pop his jaw. It only takes three seconds before Luffy seemingly remembers, his smile slipping as he crosses his arms over his chest and narrows his eyes. He looks away resolutely, but Zoro can see that the back of his neck is flushed. Zoro’s stomach drops to his ankles.

 

“Yoho, you better get in!” The ride operator cackles, nudging Zoro. “They’ll take off without you!” He’s got to be the scariest part of the ride, Zoro thinks dumbly, with his skelton-esque face paint and top hat. His name tag says Brook in big, blocky letters.

 

“I-” Zoro hesitates, looks over at Usopp and Chopper waving him on. Usopp pretends not to notice Luffy sitting right here , but there’s no way he doesn’t. “Yeah, sorry.”

 

He climbs in, pressing himself against the far side so as not to touch Luffy, but it’s small enough that their thighs touch anyway. Luffy keeps blushing and looking away; Zoro closes his eyes and pretends he didn’t see the way Luffy looked at him when he saw him. _Remember, he’s too good for you._

 

The ride itself moves at a damn snail’s pace, going through dark tunnels full of cobwebs and poorly done haunting noises in an attempt to spook the riders. At some point, plastic bones fall from the ceiling, inciting a chorus of screams. It ends up being the highlight of the ride, which finishes out without much more to it.

 

Zoro waits for the rest of the passengers to get out before he attempts his escape, but the operator holds a hand out when he attempts to. “You’re going through again!”

 

“What, why?!” Zoro demands. As he wrestles with his seatbelt, the operator flips the ride to go again with a cackled yohoho . “What the - hey, you can't’ do that!” He calls out, but it’s too late as the carts start on their rickety path again.

 

Suddenly, barely halfway through the ride (which has been spent by Zoro fuming and planning to sue), the cart stops. A flood of lights appear, revealing tall the machinery behind the poorly drawn gothic castles that served as the inside walls for the ride. Somehow, it’s so much scarier than Thriller Bark itself.

 

Next to him, Luffy rubs his eyes. He  meets Zoro’s eyes and scowls.

 

Zoro finally finds it in him to say something, “Why did he do that?!”

 

“I told him to.”

 

“What?” Zoro blinks. “When?”

 

“It’s a secret!” Luffy pulls his eyelid down and sticks his tongue out at Zoro, then looks away again crossing his arms.

 

Zoro doesn’t understand, but decides he doesn’t want to spend his night trapped in this haunted house ride with a person who (for good reason) is very obviously upset with him. “Come on, let’s get out of this thing,” Zoro starts, undoing his seatbelt.

 

He has one foot out the cart on the rail when Luffy goes, “Ugh!” very dramatically and throws his hands in the air. “Why did you disappear, Zoro?!”

 

“What -”

 

“You disappeared!” Luffy cries, looking at Zoro now with his face red and slightly steaming somehow. “You just up and stopped texting me, and I wanna know why! I’m not even a bad kisser, it’s not fair.”

 

“Luffy, I -”

 

“Sanji says it’s because he set us up, but so what if he did! I had a lot of fun with you, even when you were the most Boring Zoro, I don’t get it .” Luffy deflates suddenly. “I just wanted you to tell me why. If you didn’t like me, you just had to say so.”

 

“It’s not that -”

 

“I really liked you, y’know, I even let you meet Ace, and I don’t let anyone meet Ace, so it was very mean of you to just - just, delete me! I thought you were really cool, even though you’re kind of a jerk, but I didn’t think you were really one.”

 

“ _Luffy_ \- ”

 

“Was it the cookie thing, because that wasn’t even my fault that was Ace’s! Or because I kept winning at Mario Kart, I would have let you win if you had just said so -”

 

“Luffy, listen to me !” Zoro yells; he hates having to do that, especially when the ground they’re standing on is rocky at best, but it’s all he can do to get Luffy to stop rambling. It works - he shuts his mouth with an almost audible snap and stares wide-eyed at Zoro.

 

Zoro takes a deep breath, dragging his hand over his face in a gesture to represent how desperately he’s trying to gather his thoughts. “It’s - it’s me. Sanji said he and the crew kept pushing to get us together - that’s why we kept running into each other. When he said that I - I thought you were a lie. I thought all your talk of magnets was all bullshit, I thought you were stringing me along.”

“Why would I do that?” Luffy asks sincerely.

“I - I don’t know.” Zoro admits. In hindsight, it was fucking stupid - Luffy would have no reason for any of that. He wouldn’t take money, he’s not like that, and he’s not so grandiose to believe himself a hero to save Zoro from all his emo-ness. Zoro was just irrational and dumb in believing it, when Luffy has no motive for anything akin to fake-liking him..

“You thought I was playing you?” Luffy asks, and then, much to Zoro’s surprise, starts laughing hysterically. “Oh my God, I’m so relieved! I thought it was because I smelled bad or something. Well, that’s okay then.”

 

Zoro stares blankly. “You’re not mad at me?”

 

“Of course not! Well, not anymore.” He shrugs. “It’s a pretty good reason to stop talking to someone, I guess. But now that you know it’s not true, I’ll be mad if you still don’t talk to me! Unless there’s more you’re not telling me.”

 

Technically, there is. He’s debating telling Luffy now, he should - he should be honest if Luffy’s still interested in him. “There’s - there’s one thing.” He’s never said the words out loud to anyone, and they swell now in his throat, stick there like syrup.

 

Luffy waits, patiently, then puts a hand over Zoro’s when he doesn’t say anything. “Sanji told me something happened once that makes you all sad. Well, he said emo. He didn’t say that was, though.” He squeezes Zoro’s hand now, and Zoro can’t believe how much he’s missed Luffy’s touch. “You don’t have to tell me.”

 

He deserves it, Luffy does, but - Luffy’s right to assume Zoro isn’t ready. He’s only just now beginning to address it with himself and spilling it all to Luffy, the single person he’s willing to invest himself into for the first time in years , would be a fatal mistake. Zoro did tell himself he wanted Luffy next to him while he figures things out. His absence has been an aching heavyweight in his body. “I’ll tell you one day - if - if you still want to talk to me.”

 

“Hm, I will if you promise not to disappear anymore.” Luffy taps a finger against his chin faux-thoughtfully and then slyly grins at Zoro.

 

Zoro can’t believe how better he feels, instantly; how everything feels like sunshine again, basking in the warmth of Luffy’s smile. He can’t believe how easy it was to fall back in next to Luffy, to feel this shift between them to what they were before Zoro’s (childish) fit. He was right to believe in Luffy in the first place, he decides, and berates himself now for what he’s done to hurt him. He will make it up to him somehow, he has to. He will let Luffy know how he makes him feel, and he will willingly trust Luffy with his heart, should they decide to go that far.

 

Right now, there’s still so much he has to do and say before he, or they, will be okay again, but with Luffy sitting next to him in this shoddy haunted house ride he feels optimistic. He wants to make himself a better person, he wants to stop dreaming about her, he wants to let Luffy tear down all his walls.

 

All it ever took for Zoro to decide this was Luffy’s smile. Maybe he felt this way from the moment he met him. Looking at Luffy now, knowing Luffy still wants to be a part of his life - well - it’s the happiest he thinks he’s ever been.

 

 

 

“I promise.”

  
  


(When he dreams of her, she bids him goodbye, and he does not feel sad).

  
  


**_FIN_ **

**Author's Note:**

> i ended this where i felt it needed to end, and will leave the following events and zoro’s healing with luffy in his life up to your imagination!! Of course //i// i have my own head AU in what follows but i’d rather you guys decide how this pans out for yourself ~
> 
> a big big thank you to Melissa, the love of my life, who steadily read through this as i wrote it and was constantly like "dating site au is the BEST". i give her lots of love always.
> 
> Sanji's Tattoo Ref:  
> https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/13/b9/a2/13b9a20f75b14212ef61aafd64401f86.jpg


End file.
